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Nebraska lawmakers are in a rush to push new bills through the state’s legislative process to make the state a more attractive location for a large data center for a company that has been considering building the facility – codenamed “Project Edge” – there, Omaha World-Herald reported.

If passed, the legislation would give Project Edge and other similar projects sales and use tax refunds and potentially lower their electricity rates. Such incentives are a common way for states to attract data center construction projects, viewed as strong boosts to local economies.

The World-Herald quoted Nebraska governor Dave Heineman saying the expected investment in Project Edge would be “extraordinary”.

“We're one of the finalists [among other states the company is looking at], and I think we have an outstanding opportunity to have this occur,” Heinman said.

One of the bills would extend to data centers the state’s standing law that allows projects of certain size to get sales- and use-tax refunds, be exempt from property tax and get state refunds on local property taxes on IT hardware and software. A data center that could take advantage of these rules would have to cost at least US$300m and create 30 jobs.

If the second bill passes, publicly owned power districts in the state would be able to use whatever excess electricity they generate to negotiate lower energy rates for their data center customers or other new projects. Once negotiated, the lower rates – applicable only to high-load customers – would last for five years.

One of the tax bill’s supporters said that even if Project Edge gets all the tax breaks, the amount of taxes it would pay to the state would still be about $50m higher.

Not much has been revealed about Project Edge except its enormous size. It is expected to cost $1.2bn, according to the World-Herald. The initial investment, however, is projected to be $500m.

Just its first phase is expected to be three times larger than Yahoo!’s 180,000 sq ft facility in La Vista, an Omaha suburb.