About 50 people turned out at Veterans Park in downtown River Falls on September 23 to protest a state tax exemption for data center equipment and software, training their frustration on the Republican assemblyman who wrote it. The rally, organized by the group GROWW, marked an early skirmish in what Democrats hope becomes a real contest for Wisconsin's 30th Assembly District, a seat the party has not won since 1977.
A Decade-Long Republican Hold Faces a New Challenge
Republican Shannon Zimmerman has represented the 30th Assembly District for a decade, and he is now the target of a Democratic campaign built almost entirely around his authorship of legislation creating a data center equipment and software tax exemption, according to Urban Milwaukee. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue estimated the exemption would reduce state revenues by $1.6 billion, and Democrats argue the tax breaks helped spur a data center building boom across the state, per the same report.
GROWW's rally focused squarely on Zimmerman, opposing both data center development broadly and the state tax breaks that support the industry. Bill Hogseth, a local activist, told the crowd that AI data centers extract water and wealth from communities, and he urged support for Democratic challenger Kevin Knoke.
Knoke Frames Fight Around Fairness, Not a Ban
Knoke, the Democratic challenger in the race, said he is not interested in corporate tax giveaways and argued that corporations should pay their fair share. He has called for ratepayer protections, environmental safeguards and greater transparency and accountability for data center operators — but according to Urban Milwaukee's reporting, he does not propose an outright ban on data centers in the district.
Knoke has also accused Zimmerman of having a conflict of interest tied to the assemblyman's job history, noting that Zimmerman has held two executive positions with AI companies that could benefit from the tax breaks he authored. Zimmerman has denied any conflict of interest and dismissed the criticisms from Knoke and Democrats as political fodder intended to mislead voters. Zimmerman has said he started a tech business in River Falls twenty years ago, and that the sales and use tax exemption was signed by Gov. Tony Evers as part of a bipartisan effort.
How the 2023 Exemption Made It Into Law
The tax exemption's path to law was more complicated than a single bill. Zimmerman's original 2023 legislation, backed by Microsoft, business groups and several utilities, received some Democratic votes but ultimately did not clear the Wisconsin Legislature on its own. Instead, the bill's language was folded into Wisconsin's 2023 state budget, which Evers signed that year.
Zimmerman has since authored a follow-up measure, AB840, which he says addresses energy, water, land and taxpayer concerns raised by data center growth. That bill sought to require the Wisconsin Public Service Commission to prevent grid upgrade costs from being passed on to residential customers, to make data centers report their water use, and to require operators to set aside money for land reclamation once facilities close. The measure passed the Wisconsin Assembly with help from three Democrats but died in the Wisconsin Senate.
Regulators Already Moving on Rate Protections
Even without new legislation, Wisconsin regulators have begun acting on the cost concerns driving the campaign rhetoric. The Wisconsin Public Service Commission modified a We Energies proposal setting electric rates for data center-scale customers this year, saying the changes would protect residential ratepayers and ensure data centers pay their own way. Both Republican and Democratic candidates in the race have accused each other of cozying up to big tech, even as Urban Milwaukee notes that whether opposition to data centers will actually help Knoke remains an open question.
A National Wave of Similar Fights
Wisconsin's fight is part of a much broader surge in state-level scrutiny of data centers. Lawmakers across 31 states introduced 151 data center bills in 2025, and that number climbed to 264 bills introduced by April 21, 2026, according to Latitude Media — more than five times as many bills as in 2021. The outlet reports that legislation has shifted away from tax incentives and toward special utility tariffs, ratepayer cost protections, water disclosure requirements and construction moratoriums. Virginia alone was considering 61 data center bills this session, more than any other state, and Maine's legislature passed a first-in-the-nation moratorium on April 15 banning data centers over 20 megawatts through November 2027, awaiting Governor Janet Mills' signature.
The financial stakes behind that legislative wave are steep. Utilities nationwide are requesting to spend $1.4 trillion through 2030 to meet rising demand, per Latitude Media's reporting, and a Virginia legislative study found that data-center demand could add $14 to $37 a month to household electricity bills.
Belvidere, Illinois, Shows What's at Stake Regionally
A comparable fight is playing out in Belvidere, Illinois, where Chicago-based Datawatt Energy has discussed a proposed hyperscale facility called Project Hawkeye with city leaders since late 2024, according to WTVO/WQRF. The company's website describes plans for a three-gigawatt facility with a 500-megawatt fuel cell capable of generating enough energy to supply nearly 2.5 million homes, and the facility could use several million gallons of water daily in a water-cooled system. A pledge and reimbursement agreement for the project was finalized in May, and consultants discussed as far back as June 2025 whether Belvidere's water-well system could supply between 250 and 500 million gallons a day.
Illinois has enacted its own legislation designed to attract large-scale technology and industrial developments, including data centers and quantum-computing projects, the outlet's report notes. A ComEd official said in the same report that rising demand from facilities like Project Hawkeye can push power prices higher when supply does not otherwise change, which is part of why ComEd has proposed — and won regulatory approval for — rate and tariff changes meant to limit the impact of transmission and delivery costs on other customers.
Back in River Falls, that same tension between economic development promises and ratepayer costs is exactly what GROWW's rally and Knoke's campaign are trying to put in front of voters. Whether that message can finally flip a district Republicans have held since 1977 is a question neither side can yet answer.
