On Thursday, West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey announced two new data center development deals valued at more than $81 billion.
"We are pursuing every lead aggressively, moving at the speed of business, and putting West Virginia's abundant energy resources to work right here at home," he said.
"In less than one year, we have secured approximately $96 billion in private sector investment and more than 19,000 projected jobs."
The governor's embrace of facilities to be developed by Nscale and Starwood Digital Ventures run contrary to several other moratoriums in neighboring states designed to slow data center expansion.
To attract the industry West Virginia passed legislation in 2025 that eased zoning ordinances and allow data centers to generate their own power by establishing microgrids.
The law was signed into law in April and is now further refined by seven-point plan released by the state's Department of Commerce last month.
The plan directs 50% of data center into efforts to end the individual income tax.
The plan also states that "county budgets cannot be negatively impacted by a data center project," and "30% the revenue associated with these projects goes to the county where the project is located."
"An additional 10% associated with these projects goes to all counties across the state."
"The remaining 10% will be used for improved electrical, water, and wastewater projects for the citizens and communities of our state."
The plan requires that data centers be self-funded and ensures that "utility costs associated with large-scale data center development are not shifted to West Virginia ratepayers while promoting a stronger, more resilient electric grid."
To protect water resources the state requires developers to use a "closed-loop systems, liquid immersion cooling, and reclaimed water integration."
In West Virginia data centers are exempt from sales tax charged on building materials and hardware while servers and computers are taxed at a discounted 5% salvage value rate.
Land and non-tech buildings are taxed at local county property tax rates.
State Treasurer Larry Pack, estimates the Penzance Management Project in Berkeley County which is valued at $10 billion and the Google Project in Putnam County valued at $7 billion will generate over $100 million annually for the two counties.
Both facilities are still in the planning or pre-construction stage.
According to the Tax Foundation, West Virginia has a graduated state individual income tax, with rates ranging from 2.11% to 4.58%, ranking it at No. 25. California comes in first at 13%.
Just over 26% of state revenues come from the individual income tax. "Other taxes," which include taxes on tobacco, alcohol, vehicles, licenses, and utilities account for over 30%.
West Virginia has been on a path to cut or eliminate state income tax since 2023 when then Governor Jim Justice, cut the rates by a record 21%. In March of this year Morrisey followed suit with a 5% reduction.
