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Climate & Environment

Wisconsin City Passes America’s First Anti-Data Center Referendum

City leaders in Port Washington, Wisconsin, would have to seek voter approval to hand out tax breaks to future data center projects.

Meta Data Center

Voters in the Wisconsin city of Port Washington approved a referendum barring tax breaks for data centers without a public vote. Mike Stewart/AP

By Torrie Herrington

April 8, 2026 07:31 PM

Voters in a Wisconsin city passed the nation’s first anti-data center referendum Tuesday, aiming to restrict future development of the massive, energy-intensive facilities.

“Tonight, democracy worked the way it’s supposed to,” Christine Le Jeune with Great Lakes Neighbors Incorporated, a state-based citizens’ group, said in a statement. “Over 1,000 residents signed the petition that put this measure on the ballot, and tonight Port Washington voters spoke with one clear voice. The people deserve a seat at the table when their tax dollars are on the line.”

While the Port Washington referendum requires city leaders to get voter approval before awarding tax incentives to data center developers, it does not stop the $15 billion Vantage Data Centers project already under construction.

That development is expected to receive $458 million in tax benefits from the city, The Hill reported.

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The data center, set to open in 2028 in the Milwaukee suburb, is for tech giants OpenAI and Oracle and is backed by the Trump administration.

The successful referendum comes as progressive Democrats are pushing a moratorium on the construction of new artificial-intelligence data centers nationally.

“A moratorium will give us time — time to understand the risks, time to protect working families, time to defend our democracy and time to ensure that this technology works for all of us, not just the few,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said at a press conference in March.

A national moratorium faces an uphill climb in Congress, with critics from both parties saying it would disarm the United States in a race against China to develop and adopt advanced AI.

Last month at an Axios event, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner called the moratorium “idiocy” that “simply means China is going to move quicker.”

The Port Washington referendum is already the subject of a lawsuit by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, which argues that it violates state law.

The Wisconsin city is not the only municipality trying to get ahead of data center construction. Voters in Monterey Park, California, are facing a decision in June to ban new data center construction in city limits.