--- title: "Church Groups Asked Microsoft for a Fair Share and Microsoft Went Quiet" description: "Indiana congregations proposed a binding agreement on a $1 billion data center; the company says it is too early to say" author: "Frank Hale" published: 2026-09-28T11:00:09Z modified: 2026-09-28T13:17:58Z url: https://rews.cc/a/church-groups-asked-microsoft-for-a-fair-share-and-microsoft-c695ee language: en tags: ["microsoft", "data-centers", "tax-breaks", "ai", "infrastructure", "tech"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Church Groups Asked Microsoft for a Fair Share and Microsoft Went Quiet *Indiana congregations proposed a binding agreement on a $1 billion data center; the company says it is too early to say* By Frank Hale · September 28, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/church-groups-asked-microsoft-for-a-fair-share-and-microsoft-c695ee ## In brief - Microsoft reps have struggled to say how much the company will invest under its good-neighbor pledge - Georgia gave up $474 million in sales taxes in one year and got $41 million back, an audit found - We Make Indiana proposed Microsoft pay a share of its $1 billion Granger data center costs into a fund - The group estimates 1% alone would add roughly $30 million to $40 million a year to community programs - Microsoft offered one-time nonprofit donations totaling up to $1 million and said decisions are not yet made All year Microsoft has told the towns where it builds data centers that it will be a good neighbor. In northern Indiana, the neighbors are asking what a good neighbor pays. The company has made the promises in public. It will pay local property taxes that support hospitals, schools, parks and libraries. It will invest in “vital services the community cares about.” It has sent liaisons into the towns to learn what those services are. But ask the liaisons how much the company will invest and the answers grow thin, Ars Technica reported. At community meetings, Microsoft representatives have seemed unprepared for questions beyond the campaign materials. The company concedes that what it gives now is not enough. It matched $229 million in employee donations to 29,000 nonprofits in 2024. Critics measure that against the tax breaks. Data center developers in 38 states win exemptions worth an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars, and the exemptions often run longer than a decade. In Georgia, an audit found the state gave up $474 million in sales taxes in a single year and got back $41 million from the industry, the journalist Ronan Farrow reported. By the state’s own estimate, 70 percent of that construction would have happened without the breaks. In Indiana, a firm like Microsoft can buy data center equipment free of the state’s 7 percent sales tax. The exemption could cover as much as $13.2 billion in projected purchases. The Indy Mirror estimated that up to $900 million would otherwise have reached the tax base that supports state programs. The exemption can run for 50 years. The machine at issue is a hyperscale data center on 900 acres in Granger, in St. Joseph County, a project worth $1 billion. Around it a group called We Make Indiana has organized. It is about 25 congregations and community organizations, and it is nonpartisan. Last year the state passed a property tax savings bill that reportedly gutted local governments’ power to raise money for services. The group has spent six months telling Microsoft where the needs run deepest. Health care. Child care. Elder care. Transportation. Affordable housing. The answer came from a company liaison. Microsoft will approve a series of one-time donations to nonprofits. The total is up to $1 million. We Make Indiana calls that out of proportion to the tax savings and the profit margins the Granger hyperscaler will yield. Microsoft is no worse than the rest of the industry, the group allows. Amazon has given one-time grants of hundreds of thousands of dollars to a handful of local charities. In May the group put a proposal on the table. It asked Microsoft to negotiate directly with community members and sign what it called a Fair Share Agreement. The company would pay a fair percentage of the data center’s annual costs, during construction and over the life of the project, into a fund for social and environmental impacts. An independent board would oversee the payouts. > Microsoft has publicly stated that it wants to be a good neighbor. This is an opportunity to demonstrate what that means. So the proposal read. The idea is not new. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has proposed a national sovereign wealth fund that would take as much as $7 trillion from AI firms for the public. A nearer model sits in Pennsylvania, where State Senator Lindsey M. Williams, a Democrat, has introduced the Data Center Fair Share Act. Her bill would bind developers to community benefits agreements that share at least 10 percent of a project’s total cost. Ryan Juskus, a We Make Indiana leader, said 10 percent “is very much on the high end.” His group thought first of asking for 1 or 2 percent. It estimates 1 percent alone would add about $30 million to $40 million a year to community programs. In the end it asked Microsoft to name the fair percentage itself, and to accept higher standards on water and energy use, air quality, sustainability and worker protections. “It’s kind of like asking Microsoft to help us solve our challenges when the state has abandoned us,” Juskus told Ars. “We would love to see Microsoft show leadership in an area that needs real leadership right now around doing data centers better, and who better to do that than Microsoft in partnering with a community like ours that has been a very struggling community for a long time?” Microsoft has gone quiet since the proposal arrived. A spokesperson said the company takes it as an important part of its community listening process, but that it is too early to discuss while Microsoft engages other community leaders. “Microsoft remains committed to developing our data center project in Granger in partnership with the community,” the spokesperson said. “At this early stage of development, investment decisions have not yet been made.” The company has approved some first grants. It has not said how much each group will get. The money so far favors educational nonprofits and a community college, to build digital skills and make people more comfortable using AI. Microsoft has set up a land trust that “preserves and restores natural lands and waters in northwestern Indiana.” It gives to hunger relief and to community volunteering. Juskus counted the gifts as “completely not proportional, not ongoing,” and made “entirely” on Microsoft’s terms. “It frankly just kind of buys silence,” he said.