said by F100:Now that Portland and Oregon, have fixed the tax problem holding Google up,...
The biggest problems with that fix being...
A} the revenue dept seems to think it should ONLY apply to Google (a previous story had Comcast's tax exemption request being denied)
B} those taxes and regulation served/funded some gov't purpose( or not) so what is the true cost to other taxpayers to make up the difference?
Will the general taxpayer end up paying to replace power poles in future years, because google is not, or pay for replacement properties next to the fire stations etc. because Googles discounted rental rates are less the market value?
Some other tax discounts in that area used to attract/keep business development (Intel, nike, Google and amazon data centers etc?) are now being questioned as to their true value and the return on that public/private investment is much lower then forecast and some companies pack up and offshore work, or shutter the facilities the tax breaks paid for.
of all companies that really don't need public subsidy to build facilities Google would be near the top of the list, yet they have had their hand out since day one for each of their projects from corporate campus's to GF and data centers around the world.
Remember once again the public contribution isn't buying/owning the fiber or network for public ownership, just subsidizing what should be GF's costs in building THEIR private network/ISP business.