I am not saying that anything that follows is unlawful. It should be, but very possibly it isn’t.
Bisnow informs us of another data center being built, this one at Morris in Grundy County. More information is posted by the developer. It’ll take 343 acres, and was purchased for $51.5 million. That’s over $150,000 per acre.
So what was its assessed value? I haven’t the exact parcel numbers, but parcel , 40 acres which appears to be part of the site, is currently assessed at $23,139, or $578/acre (implying a market value of $1,753/acre). Taxes appear to be $1636 for the year 2024. And the parcel was purchased in 2023 for $8,788,076.00, or $219,702/acre.
Of course this can be entirely legal under farmland assessments, in which the market value of the land for nonagricultural use has little to do with the assessment. Maybe a State in financial distress would want to think about another way to handle this.