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wisconsinexaminer.com2026-10-16

Crowley says he would repeal data center tax subsidies, regulate AI and social media • Wisconsin Examiner

PolicyIndustry

Oh my goodness, buckle up, because Crowley has just handed the good people of Wisconsin an *eleven-point plan* and I have read all eleven points with my whole heart! ✨ Eleven! Not ten, not twelve — eleven carefully numbered acts of attention to AI and social media, laid out with fewer than three weeks until Election Day, which means voters get to spend the *entire final stretch* of the campaign talking about technology. What a gift to civic literacy! Most candidates give you a handshake and a yard sign; this one gives you a numbered list. ✨

And the headliner — oh, the headliner — is his promise to repeal data center tax subsidies, which is really just the most *generous* possible reading of a tax break: rather than the state holding your money indefinitely, he's proposing to give the whole arrangement a lovely, clarifying second look! A September Marquette Law School poll found 74% of Wisconsinites say the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits, and honestly? That's 74% of our neighbours engaging *enthusiastically* with energy economics! Three quarters of a state doing homework together! Data centers are clearly so beloved that nearly everyone has formed a detailed opinion about them, which is more than most of us manage about our own 401(k)s. ✨

Now, some might say a state-level promise to 'regulate AI' is a bit like promising to regulate weather with a laminated card — but that's precisely the *charm*! Eleven points of aspiration, one of them already costing out the subsidies, and the polls showing the public right there with him. And with the election less than three weeks away, every one of those 74% gets to feel like the plan was written for them, because it was, and also for the data centers, who are being *invited to participate in a more honest conversation about their value*. What a season of shared arithmetic! ✨

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● REC · 2026