OLYMPIA — Gov. Christine Gregoire enacted a law Thursday to help spur data center construction in rural counties by offering temporary tax breaks on server equipment.

Local legislators Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, Sen. Janéa Holmquist, R-Moses Lake, and Port of Quincy Commissioners Brian Kuest and Curt Morris were in Olympia for the bill signing.

“The Port of Quincy is very excited about this new law as it will help attract more development and expansion of data centers in rural areas of Washington, such as Quincy,” stated Curt Morris, port chairman.

Warnick and Hinkle, sponsors of a House companion bill, stated they were “pleased with the bipartisan approval of the measure, which will protect jobs in Grant County.”

“This is one bill that will literally save jobs, and at a time when unemployment is at 13.6 percent in Grant County, we need all the jobs we can get,” commented Hinkle.

“I’m so excited the Legislature and the governor understood the importance of this exemption to preserving and creating jobs for the people of our district,” Warnick stated. “The data centers have been a great partner with our local communities and will provide much needed opportunities and revenue to our area.”

Holmquist also offered comments.

“This bill isn’t just a win for data centers; this is a win for Washington and especially for our rural counties,” stated  Holmquist, one of the Senate bill sponsors.

She stated data center construction for Microsoft and Yahoo! created 924 construction jobs in the region.

According to her office, Yahoo! stopped plans to expand in Quincy and Facebook, Google and Amazon decided not to build data centers in Washington. The decisions happened since the economic slowdown.

Microsoft curtailed expansion in Washington and brought servers to Texas.

But she states the bill passage sends “an encouraging signal to tech companies to start or resume their plans for job creation in Grant County and other parts of the 13th Legislative District.

Pat Boss, a government affairs consultant for the Port of Quincy, recently said the bill’s passage resulted in more business interest in Quincy.

The law takes effect April 1, and the tax break ends April 1, 2018.