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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lycanthrope" data-source="post: 498005" data-attributes="member: 562">Yes. There are several documented, non-tax benefits that show up in North Dakota’s actual projects—especially around Ellendale, Harwood, Jamestown, and the Williston area. They are real but uneven: construction-phase effects are large and temporary, operational effects are smaller and longer-lasting, and some communities capture more of them than others.Jobs and local spending. Large campuses generate thousands of construction jobs at peak (roughly 1,800–2,000 workers at Applied Digital’s Ellendale and Harwood sites) plus hundreds of permanent operations, security, and maintenance roles once running. Applied Digital has projected 300–400 full-time positions at the Ellendale campus alone and hundreds more across its other ND sites; statewide figures cited by the tax commissioner have been in the low hundreds of permanent jobs created or retained so far. Those roles pay above typical rural wages (one company figure is an average around $64,000) and create multiplier spending at local contractors, trucking, hotels, restaurants, and suppliers. Housing has been a visible side effect: the company participated in a program that produced 20 new homes in Ellendale.Lower or more stable electric bills for existing customers. Because data centers are large, 24/7 loads, they can spread the fixed costs of the grid and use power that would otherwise be curtailed (especially wind). Montana-Dakota Utilities customers received millions in transmission-rider and purchased-power credits after the Ellendale load came online; average household savings were reported around $70 in one recent year, with projections of roughly $250 annually at full build-out. Cooperative officials have said the same dynamic can reduce upward pressure on rates for the rest of the membership when the data center pays for its own substations and lines.Grid and infrastructure upgrades that others also use. New substations, transmission lines, and fiber often get built or reinforced to serve the campus; co-ops note that those upgrades can improve reliability for everyone on the system. Small towns have used the extra local activity to fund streets, a senior center, public-safety facilities, trails, and an opera-house renovation. Some projects have been annexed into city limits specifically so the community captures more of the activity.Support for North Dakota’s existing energy industries. The state already produces more electricity than it consumes and has growing associated natural gas from the Bakken plus lignite plants that need baseload customers. A large, predictable load can keep a coal plant or mine running, use gas that might otherwise be flared, and absorb “stranded” wind that transmission cannot always move. Energy-industry groups treat this as a way to protect existing jobs and tax base in coal and oil country rather than starting from zero.Modest population and amenity effects in very small towns. Ellendale (roughly 1,100 people) expected several hundred new residents over a few years. That is not a boom on the scale of an oil play, but it is enough to keep schools, businesses, and services from shrinking further. Officials also point to downstream uses of the compute itself—precision agriculture, rural healthcare, and weather modeling—though those are statewide or national rather than town-specific.The usual caveats apply. Permanent job counts are low relative to the capital spent and the power consumed; construction housing and traffic pressure is real while the crews are on site; water and rate-impact risks exist if projects are poorly sited or if utilities do not isolate the large-load costs. Several ND communities and lawmakers have therefore pushed for community-benefit agreements and stricter vetting so the non-tax upsides actually land locally rather than remaining talking points. In short, the benefits exist and have already shown up in specific places; they are just narrower than the tax-base argument that usually dominates the conversation.</blockquote>

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