Sherburne County, Minnesota has agreed to waive 20 years' worth of property taxes if Google builds a data center in the area.

Google would only have to pay taxes for the current value of the 300 acre plot designated for the data center. As this site is currently just an open field, Google would pay $16,500 a year in property tax for the next 20 years.

Taxes, what taxes?

Out of Google's current proposed yearly tax payment of $16,500, Sherburne county will receive $9,000 and the county's school district will receive $4,500. The remaining $3,000 will go to the city of Becker.

By granting the tax abatement, the county expects to give up around $390,000 dollars annually in potential revenue if the facility is built, which means the county would lose out on $7.8 million worth of taxes over the course of the next two decades.

The Becker City School district voted to not provide a tax break for its portion, and will take in about $300,000 in taxes annually from the tech giant should it build a data center.

The city of Becker still needs to vote on its section of the property tax, which could bring the full tax cut to $15m.

Google's proposed facility in Becker was outed in a regulatory filing with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission by Xcel Energy earlier this year, but has yet to be publicly acknowledged by Google.

The company plans to build the 375,000 square foot data center on roughly 300 acres of land owned by Xcel Energy near Sherburne county’s Generating Station, the largest coal-burning plant in the Upper Midwest.

Xcel plans to close two of the three coal generators over the next seven years.

Sherburne county officials reckon that Google coming to the area will boost the local economy to the tune of $7.5m annually from jobs created by the project. Although the data center will only employ around 50 people, up to 1,000 workers could be needed to construct the data center.