After a long discussion on data centers during the joint subcommittee on tax policy Monday morning, it appears tension remains between Senate Finance Chair Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, and House Appropriations Chair Luke Torian, D-Fairfax, after a hard-fought budget negotiation process earlier this year.
“You know, I just want to reiterate my desire for us to have a third meeting,” Lucas said at the end of the meeting. “We’ve only had two meetings, and I’m not satisfied that we’ve been given enough information for us to make any substantial recommendations on tax policy.”
Lucas and Senate Democrats were adamant that they wanted to end the sales tax incentive for data centers in Virginia earlier this year when legislators were negotiating Virginia’s new two-year budget. The House and Gov. Abigail Spanberger did not want to renege on the commonwealth’s commitment to the tax incentive, which is set to run until 2035.
Ultimately, the incentive stayed, but a new tax on energy consumption was included, which is expected to generate $600 million annually.
The negotiations were tense at times in public, with Lucas publicly calling out Spanberger and House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, for supporting keeping the incentive. But since then, there has been no public animosity between the two chambers as Lucas deals with her own legal troubles and faces multiple federal indictments.
However, on Monday, the tension resurfaced in Lucas’ closing comments at the meeting.
She brought up an alleged poll Torian is conducting to gauge House members’ interest in holding another subcommittee meeting to discuss taxes on data centers.
“I don’t know if you’ve gotten that poll done yet, but I know the members of the Senate… We’d like to see a third meeting, and we’d like to see it somewhere in the community, especially the communities that are impacted by data centers,” she said. “So, if the House colleagues do not see the importance of this work, I feel compelled to give the people what they want and work on this issue in our committee, including having a meeting on data centers.”
Torian then responded to Lucas, who was seated directly to his right, before delivering his closing statement for the meeting.
“Let me share with you that there will be a meeting, perhaps maybe a couple of meetings, and I’m not in a position to articulate to the public how that will proceed because I believe you and I had a conversation a couple days ago, and we’re supposed to be meeting after this meeting, so we can talk,” Torian said.
“But I’d still like to have those meetings fast,” Lucas responded.
Torian began to say something, but Lucas interrupted and said, “We’ll talk.”
“Okay,” Torian responded.
Torian and Lucas did not respond to a question asking for clarification from Virginia Scope after the meeting.