State Sen. Ryan Fazio talks about data centers in Windsor, CT on Sept. 3, 2026. Credit: Jamil Ragland / CTNewsJunkie
WINDSOR, CT — Calling the Lamont administration’s position on a tax incentive program for data center construction “extreme”, Republican gubernatorial nominee Sen. Ryan Fazio, R-Greenwich, called for an end to the program.
Fazio spoke Thursday morning at Station1633 Table and Tavern in Windsor, where Cigna used the state’s Data Center Tax Incentive Program to build a new data center in 2023. He said the data center is a clear example of unfairness taxpayers face, as the project received $17 million in tax rebates.
“What that means very clearly for the Lamont record, for the legislature’s record, is that over eight years, if you are a well-connected business, whether you’re a data center, an energy company, among others, that you get special breaks,” Fazio said. “But if you’re a middle class or a working class taxpayer without a lobbyist, without an activist, without a connection to Hartford, you’re left holding the bag.”
Under the tax incentive program, qualifying projects can receive sales and use tax exemptions on certain goods and services purchased or used by the data center, and property tax exemptions on certain real property and equipment used by the data center. It also provides an exemption for financial transactions taxes the state may impose in the future. The agreements typically last for 20 years.
In addition to ending the tax incentive, Fazio called for more guardrails around the data center industry, although he didn’t specify what those would be. He also said that future data centers must provide their own power, be it through batteries, fuel cells or other renewable sources.
When asked whether removing tax incentives for data centers could have a general chilling effect on the state’s efforts to develop its advanced technology industries, Fazio pointed to other states which don’t have tax rebates for data centers, yet still have developed technology-focused industries.
““In other states where there is more deployment, they aren’t getting [subsidies],” he said. “They are paying their taxes and trying to contribute to the local and state budget revenues.”
Matt Corey, Republican nominee for lieutenant governor and Fazio’s running mate, said that his concerns centered around a lack of transparency regarding the awarding of the tax incentives, referring to an auditor’s report published in July that found deficiencies in the process.
“State auditors said [the Windsor Data Center] didn’t go through the proper review process to get this done,” he said. “Those are safeguards for the taxpayers. They’re not there for an inconvenience. If this was a good deal, then bring it to light. The taxpayers should know what they’re actually getting.”
Longtime Windsor resident and former Republican candidate for the state’s 60th House District Len Walker spoke about the burden such tax incentives can place on regular residents.
“When I hear that a data center can avoid paying taxes that ordinary Connecticut residents have to pay, I have to ask why,” he said. “My electric bill keeps going up, just like everything else. When you’re living on a fixed income, you can’t afford to pick up the tab for giant data centers.”
On the Democratic side, state Sen. James Maroney, D-Milford, said that while the tax incentive is “something we need to look at”, the bill was passed in 2021 and was intended for data centers built by local companies like Cigna, not the hyper-scaled data centers used by corporations like Google and Meta.
Maroney also took Fazio to task for what he described as the Republican candidate’s opposition to protecting Connecticut residents from other harms associated with data centers and technology. He specifically pointed to Fazio’s no vote on Senate Bill 5, the online safety bill signed by the governor earlier this year. That bill required AI companion operators to include a protocol to detect user expressions indicating a risk of suicide, self harm or imminent violence and implement measures to prevent the AI companion from encouraging such behavior.
