More people would accept a nuclear power plant in their community than a data center, according to recent Gallup polling. Who would have predicted that even five years ago? The facilities needed to power the rise of artificial intelligence as well as to allow us to continue our collective smartphone addiction are wildly unpopular. And yet even as they draw bipartisan ire, data centers are a fact of modern life. Given that, it’d be best for the public to make — and get — the most of them. The trouble is, while data centers elsewhere have led to property tax relief, in Cook County we’ve been giving many of them preferential tax treatment even as homeowners’ bills continue to go up. Consider the headlines on data centers and property taxes in Loudoun County, Virginia, versus Cook County. In Loudoun County, referred to sometimes as “Data Center Alley” as a nod to its more than 250 data centers, the industry is expected to generate $1.3 billion in tax revenue next year. With this boon has come a downward trajectory of residential property tax bills, which have fallen by about 30%