Danville's City Council discuss a tax cut for data center equipment

Right now, Danville doesn't have any data centers. But city council members hope that will soon change.

"We don't have any but we think we could get them if we were competitive on the tax side," said Vice Mayo Lee Vogler.

So they're considering making a drastic tax cut to attract big name companies. Vogler proposed reducing the tax rate from $3.50 per $100 to just $0.25 per $100. If approved, it would be the lowest in the Commonwealth.

"The easiest way I can always explain it [Data Centers] is its like on your smart phone, you take photos, its storing it on a cloud, well that cloud is not up there somewhere, that cloud is a data center somewhere," said Vogler.

And that somewhere could be the Schoolfield Yard on West Main Street.

"Typically data centers are bringing 30-100 jobs, which they're high paying jobs, they're good, they bring in a lot of revenue for a community," said Vogler.

Vogler said he's already seen interest from companies. The tax cut will get voted on officially at City Council's next business meeting on September 18th.