Portsmouth
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Data center equipment has been exempt from Virginia sales and use tax since 2010 (Va. Code § 58.1-609.3(18)). Qualifying projects must create at least 50 jobs paying at least 150% of the local prevailing wage. The exemption is set to expire in 2035. (Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (copy posted by Prince William County), Dec. 9, 2024; Hunton Andrews Kurth, July 16, 2026) JLARC's December 2024 study put the exemption's cost at $928.6 million in FY2023, the largest economic-development incentive in the state. JLARC's later incentive review put it at about $1 billion in FY2024, up from $685 million the year before, and close to 80% of all state incentive spending that year. The two FY2023 figures differ and come from separate JLARC reports. (Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (copy posted by Prince William County), Dec. 9, 2024; The Virginian-Pilot (republished by Governing), Nov. 26, 2025) The 2026–2028 state budget, enacted June 29, 2026, left the exemption in place. It added a tax of 1.1 cents per kilowatt-hour on electricity used by data centers from July 1, 2026, capped at $600 million a year and expiring after June 30, 2028. (Hunton Andrews Kurth, July 16, 2026) In Dominion Energy's biennial review (SCC Case No. PUR-2025-00058, final order Nov. 25, 2025), the State Corporation Commission created rate class GS-5, effective Jan. 1, 2027. It covers customers of 25 MW or more on one site with a load factor of at least 75%. GS-5 customers sign 14-year contracts and pay at least 85% of contracted distribution and transmission demand and 60% of generation demand. (Virginia State Corporation Commission (copy posted by NPR), Nov. 25, 2025; Cardinal News, Nov. 26, 2025; Loudoun Now, Nov. 25, 2025) Executive Order 22, signed Sept. 18, 2026, bars state agencies from signing nondisclosure agreements on data center projects. It also orders work on noise and diesel-generator emissions and names Eastern Virginia a cooling-water-scarcity area. (McGuireWoods, Sept. 24, 2026) Virginia data centers →