TRENTON, Ohio — Trenton City Council is considering a package of proposed financial benefits for residents that would take effect if voters reject a November ballot issue aimed at banning new large-scale data centers in the city.
WATCH: Trenton council introduces legislation tied to November data center vote
The proposals received their first reading Thursday night.
Issue 17 would amend Trenton's charter to prohibit the construction of data centers requiring more than 25 megawatts of electricity within city limits. The issue is headed to voters Nov. 3 after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled the city had improperly refused to certify the citizen-led charter amendment for the ballot.
The proposed legislation spells out what the city says would happen financially if Issue 17 fails and a proposed Amazon data center project moves forward.
What the proposed legislation would do
One resolution would provide a one-year holiday from Trenton's general fund inside property tax millage for tax year 2026, which would be collected in 2027.
City Finance Director Matthew Mesisklis said the project would provide tax value equivalent to about seven mills. City documents estimate that without the data center revenue, residents could eventually face requests for up to seven mills in additional property taxes to maintain current service levels.
For a homeowner with a $300,000 home, the city has estimated that could represent roughly $735 a year in additional property taxes.
Other proposed resolutions would prevent the city from seeking certain new property tax levies for police, streets, and part-time fire and EMS services until at least 2035 if the data center development proceeds.
A separate proposal would give residents a 30% discount on standard YMCA memberships once data center construction begins.
City says voters deserve to know the financial impact
Mayor Ryan Perry said the purpose of the legislation is not to tell voters how to vote, but to lay out the economic consequences of the decision before them.
“We're taking these cards of what this would mean economically and laying them on the table so the voters can know this will happen,” Perry said.
Residents question the timing
The proposals drew criticism during public comment, with some residents questioning why the benefits are being formally tied to the outcome of Issue 17.
One resident described the resolutions as “five dangling political carrots.”
Another called the measures a “poorly veiled attempt to unduly influence the upcoming ballot issue in November.”
The city has rejected that characterization.
Expert says linking benefits to election outcome is unusual
Greg Lawson, a senior research fellow at the Buckeye Institute who studies Ohio state and local tax and government policy, said there is nothing unusual about a government explaining how a ballot measure could affect taxes or services.
He said the unusual part is directly putting those consequences into legislation tied to the election's outcome.
“It's one thing to have a PR campaign of just the facts, ma'am. It is another thing to explicitly put it within a particular statute,” Lawson said.
Lawson said the structure could potentially lead to litigation after the election if someone argued the legislation improperly affected the vote.
“Seeing it quite that explicitly put in there, in that way,” Lawson said, “I think that there's a decent chance that somebody could litigate it.”
Lawson did not say the proposed legislation is definitively illegal, and the Buckeye Institute has not issued a formal legal opinion on the Trenton measures.
The proposed data center project
The financial proposals are connected to a proposed data center development on roughly 600 acres in Madison and St. Clair townships.
The city has sought to annex the property so the project could become part of Trenton. An expedited annexation petition connected to the project was recently withdrawn.
The proposed tax benefits are conditioned on the defeat of Issue 17 and the project moving forward.
Trenton already has a separate data center under construction.
City officials say the proposed development would provide significant additional tax value and help offset the cost of maintaining city services.
The proposed legislation is not final. Thursday's meeting was the first reading, and council would have to take additional action before the measures become law.
WCPO 9 has also contacted the Ohio Secretary of State's Office and the Butler County Board of Elections for comment on the city's approach.
The Butler County Board of Elections had no comment on the legislation itself.
The Secretary of State's Office has not responded to our request for comment.
