Iowa Preps Incentives for 'Company X'

Does this sound familiar? A state legislature has approved tax breaks in an effort to lure an unnamed "large Internet company" to do business in its state. This time it's Iowa, where Google is rumored to be the mystery tenant in a secretive data center project in Council Bluffs.

Whoever 'Company X' may be, the Iowa legislature is eager to have its business. On Friday the Iowa House approved an incentive package would offer sales-tax and use-tax breaks on equipment, machinery and electricity on an investment of at least $200 million. Legslators wouldn't identify the prospect, but said the company is looking at sites in the Council Bluffs. The bill now moves to the state Senate.

Prior to the announcement of Google's plans to build a data center in Lenoir, N.C., state legislators passed mesures offering economic incentives of that could provide up to $100 million in benefit to the project. The state of Oklahoma recently passed a law allowing large industrial power customers to not disclose their total power use. The law was passed shortly after Google said it was considering an 800-acre site in Pryor, Oklahoma for a data center.