The quiet stretch of Montgomery County near New Florence is suddenly on the verge of going very high tech. Google has told Missouri officials it plans to pour roughly $15 billion into a hyperscale data center campus outside the small town, an announcement unveiled last week at a union training center in nearby High Hill. Company leaders and state officials say the project will mean thousands of construction jobs, hundreds of long‑term roles and new efforts around energy affordability and workforce training. It also lands Google right next to an already controversial cloud build in the same county, which has quickly revived questions about taxes, water and who is really in charge on the ground.
Announcement at the High Hill training center
Alphabet finance chief Ruth Porat joined company executives, Gov. Mike Kehoe and local officials for a community event at the Laborers and Contractors Training Center, where the deal was pitched as a blend of infrastructure, jobs and community grants. According to Google, the New Florence campus comes packaged with workforce and energy commitments tied specifically to the region. Photographs from the event, published by the St. Louis Post‑Dispatch, captured state leaders and community partners sharing the stage as they touted the investment.
Promises on energy, water and training
State and company statements leaned heavily on assurances about utility bills and local water supplies while promising new capacity and community funding. The governor’s office noted that Google will "pay for 100% of the power the data center uses and any new infrastructure costs that are directly driven by its operations," and that the company has already contracted new generation capacity while working with Ameren to add hundreds of megawatts of support. The project also includes a $20 million Energy Impact Fund and a training push that Google says will allow the High Hill center to train more than 2,300 construction laborers, including roughly 1,500 apprentices. For a rural county, that is a serious pipeline of hard hats.
Jobs, taxes and the local deal
Local planning documents released alongside the announcement spell out a Chapter 100 structure that relies on taxable industrial revenue bonds and personal‑property abatements to make the server‑heavy campus pencil out. Reporting from ABC17/KMIZ shows the draft framework allows for up to $100 billion in IRBs and an effective 70% personal‑property abatement over 25 years under the current proposal, with Google pledging annual community benefit payments once the facility is complete. Supporters say that means steady tax revenue and long‑overdue infrastructure upgrades. Critics say the tradeoffs for small school districts and farmland need a lot more sunlight before anyone signs on the dotted line.
Local reaction and the broader context
Montgomery County residents who fought an earlier Amazon data center proposal are not exactly relaxing. Grassroots groups already sued to block the Amazon project, citing open‑meetings concerns and a lack of transparency. As locals who sued to block the Amazon project and other outlets reported, the February suit asked a judge to void county approvals tied to that plan, and community meetings since then have been crowded and contentious. That bruising recent history now frames Google’s pitch and the county’s next round of deliberations.
Legal and oversight mechanics
The Chapter 100 and IRB tools, plus Missouri’s large‑load rules, form the legal spine of the deal. State officials point to Senate Bill 4 reforms and the Missouri Public Service Commission’s large‑load tariff as the guardrails that are supposed to prevent costs from being shifted onto other customers. Documents and local reporting show county commissioners still must hold public hearings, finalize any abatement ordinance and complete land and permitting steps before construction can move ahead. Opponents are pressing for a clearer cost‑benefit analysis and more detailed answers on water usage, traffic and long‑term tax impacts.
What’s next
County leaders have scheduled public meetings to review the cost‑benefit analysis and the proposed incentive package, with a formal hearing set in early June to consider the plan, according to local coverage. If commissioners sign off on the Chapter 100 structure and related measures, the project will still need land closings, permits and utility interconnection work with Ameren before any dirt is turned. For now, Google’s move has turned Montgomery County into one of the Midwest’s most closely watched data center corridors, and a test of how a rural community negotiates the promise and pressure that come with a tech giant at the edge of town.
