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As Minnesota gears up for a special session, lawmakers are continuing to discuss the possibility of extending hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to some of the world's wealthiest companies to build hyperscale data centers in Minnesota, decades into the future. Unfortunately, due to how this issue has rapidly and often secretly unfolded, we the public in Minnesota do not know nearly enough about how these data centers would affect our lives and how much these tax breaks would cost us. This is too important an issue to handle without a full public debate.

We commend the Minnesota Star Tribune for its reporting to date on the intense amount of resources required by hyperscale data centers, like water, energy and metals. The news organization has done a laudable job of attempting to help readers keep up with the rush of new developments on this topic that remains extremely new to most Minnesotans — too new and complex, frankly, to be left to 11th-hour deals made by a handful of people in dark rooms.

Meanwhile, we are concerned that some of the legislators pushing for data center tax breaks may themselves have large data centers proposed in their own districts, without the knowledge of their constituents. ("A massive development is proposed for a northeastern Minnesota city. Local officials aren't saying what it is," May 21). Alarm bells are ringing locally as we await documents from the city of Hermantown that have been requested under the Data Practices Act.

Is there a conversation to be had about balancing financial incentives for economic development against impacts on our communities, natural resources and state budget? Yes, but we need a real conversation, and that means legislators acting in full transparency when it comes to determining what policies and protections are needed to regulate these behemoths. As it stands, in addition to the challenges of tracking this conversation at the Legislature, the details of specific data center proposals are often hidden behind nondisclosure agreements. Given the major impacts we already know data centers have, surely we should not be rushing to expand corporate welfare to companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook with the broader conversation in its infancy.

Rushing more tax breaks for billionaires is not the kind of long-term thinking that has made our state what it is today. Gov. Tim Walz is in an important position to help reject tax breaks for Big Tech, and we urge him to do so. Minnesota as a whole would do well to take a beat and bring this entire conversation much more out into the open.

JT Haines is northeastern Minnesota director for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. Sarah Mooradian is government relations and policy director for CURE. Margaret Levin is state director for the Sierra Club Northstar Chapter. Patty O'Keefe is regional director for Vote Solar.