OLYMPIA - A bill extending a sales tax exemption deadline to spur data center construction passed with a 41-1 vote in the Senate during the Legislature's special session.

The bill allows qualifying companies a tax exemption on replacement data center server equipment and now goes to the House for consideration. 

Sen. Janéa Holmquist-Newbry, R-Moses Lake, Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, and Sen. Linda Evans Parlette, R-Wenatchee, were among the senators voting in favor of the bill. 

If the bill is approved by the House, data centers have until April 1, 2021, to take advantage of the sales tax exemption. The original deadline was July 1, 2010.

Five companies have either expanded current facilities or started building in Grant County because of the original bill, Grant County Economic Development Council (EDC) Managing Director Jon Smith said Friday.

In Quincy, Yahoo! and Microsoft expanded and Dell and Sabey broke ground, he said.

In Moses Lake, there is more activity at the Titan Building, he said. 

All of the companies, with the exception of Dell, already owned land in Grant County, he explained.

"We're glad to see it was moving forward," he commented. "It was intended to stimulate economic activity and was given a short window to see if it would work."

The data centers are full of thousands of servers costing $10,000 each and more.

The bill exempts the companies from paying sales tax when replacing the servers.

Benefits include construction jobs and spending in communities, he said.

The EDC is continuing to talk with data center companies about locating to Grant County. 

Dave Johnson, executive secretary of the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council, said the bill is an important one for the organization, based on what happened from the original, one-year tax exemption.

"From last year's bill, we've seen over 200,000 work hours put into data center projects and our understanding is, there's other major data center facilities that would like to move into the area if the tax exemption were extended," Johnson commented.

Port of Quincy Government Affairs Director Pat Boss commended Sens. Holmquist-Newbry, Schoesler and Parlette for their efforts.

"The coalition that's been formed with the labor union, Sabey and some of the data center folks, Quincy, and Grant County EDC, this group has worked well together and obviously made a difference," Boss said.