Giving a temporary property tax abatement to builders of new commercial buildings is a longstanding method of encouraging commercial development. It is, I think, appropriate, as opposed to direct subsidies.
Tax bribes have not worked in NYS.
And its not as if those companies that benefit from property tax incentives don’t pay property taxes - indeed they do, they just get a discounted rate. A 2000 acre property with two data centers will still bring in new and much-appreciated property tax revenues for that county. Add in at least 50 permanent jobs, plus the income taxes paid, and additional $$$ then pumped into the local economy (not to mention the short-term job boost from construction).
Also - common citizens will have a side-benefit of improved tech infrastructure from another major tech player that will require MASSIVE backbone support for bandwidth use.
And while Apple may be a mostly “liberal”-leaning company (as are, sadly, most tech companies), they tend to be awfully generous to local causes and municipalities - notice the promised local investments, even before the deal’s ink is dry - a ball park and $100 million in to a local developments fund. Seems Apple is already planning to pay back the incentive $ (and yes, they can take a tax write-off for a lot of that).