$10M tax break for X data center in Fulton County faces backlash

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - A $10 million tax break for the world's richest man is causing a backlash in Fulton County.

Last week, the Development Authority of Fulton County signed off on the tax break, which is for the expansion of an artificial intelligence center for the Elon Musk-owned social media platform X.

Now Atlanta City Council member Matt Westmoreland, who holds the Post 2 At-Large seat, is slamming the move, calling it the most egregious tax break he has ever seen.

Westmoreland tells FOX 5 that the project is already underway and will not create a single new job in the area.

"This money is going to somebody who is literally tearing apart the fabric of the country online, and I cannot understand how we got to this point," he said.

Councilman Matt Westmoreland

The development board had previously deadlocked on the measure but approved the abatement last week.

While no new jobs will come from the expansions, records show the tax break will allow the project to retain 24 existing positions over a period of a decade at $420,000 per job.

Former City Council member and former U.S. House Rep. Kwanza Hall sits on the development board and championed the tax cut.

"Having more data centers such as the X corporations data center, we truly will be able to offer the latest generation of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence," he said.

He disputed that the county's assistance to Musk's company amounts to support of the billionaire's controversial positions.

"It's definitely not an endorsement or anything of that type," Hall said.

Westmoreland thinks that tax breaks can be helpful for the community, but that this one in particular is not.

"We do abatements all the time, and we do it for folks who are building deeply affordable housing and to bring grocery stores and coffee shops and middle-wage jobs to parts of town that might not have them but for that incentive. This is not that," he said.

Hall chalked the criticism over the tax break down to political football, but the tension between the county and the city of Atlanta isn't new.

In 2020, the Atlanta City Council passed a resolution asking the county authority to stop granting tax breaks in city limits, but it hasn't.

Now Westmoreland is calling on either the county commissioners or the state General Assembly to step in.

FOX 5's requests for comment from X were not returned.