Data center debate rocks Decatur
[September 02, 2026]
By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Tensions ran high at a public forum in Decatur on
Monday night, as debates over data centers keep raging in Illinois and
across the country.
The Citizen’s Voluntary Advisory Committee on Data Centers held the
event at the Decatur Civic Center and presented its report that said the
challenges presented by data center development can be accepted by Macon
County and “reasonably mitigated.”
The report concluded that the benefits for county residents “positively
balance” toward reasonable data center development.
When people in the audience began protesting loudly, CVAC chairman Jerry
Stocks said those who were shouting did not understand enough to engage
in intelligent debate.
“I’m not gonna have my community pirated by people of your ilk that are
ill-informed, that seek nothing but the deconstruction of the progress
of this community,” Stocks said.
Stocks said his family has been in the area for generations.
“The people up here and other people in this community are standing up
to make sure that we do not have ourselves as another Danville, or
another Cairo, or another depressed community,” Stocks said.
Residents also had the chance to speak, with some expressing opposition
to data centers and others citing economic benefits from developments in
other parts of the United States.
President Donald Trump said in a social media post on Monday that China
could not be happier with the anti-data center movement in the U.S.
“The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want
data centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they
want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over
the place, let Data Reign,” Trump posted.
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Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey said he
and the president do not see eye to eye on this issue.
“As I travel across Illinois, I hear the same concerns: massive data
centers are threatening farmland, straining our power grid and
driving up costs,” Bailey said in a social media post.
In June, Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered the Illinois Department of
Commerce and Economic Opportunity to pause tax incentives for data
centers. The order took on July 1.
According to a new poll, U.S. voters want local governments to have
the most say on whether data centers are approved.
The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll found that 50% of those
surveyed want local governments to have the most power, 21% think it
should be state governments, 11% think the federal government should
decide and 7% believe it should be the private companies building
the data centers that decide. Twelve percent were not sure.
Independent Illinois U.S. Senate candidate Whitfield Harrington, Jr.
said communities should not open the floodgate just to get quick
cash from developers.
“There’s going to be some unpredictable costs and effects that we
have yet to discover what they are, and we need to get a better
understanding of it before we go all the way in on it,” Harrington
told The Center Square.
Jon Styf contributed to this story
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