Ohio — DeWine pause of the data center sales tax exemption program (2026)

OHIO — EXECUTIVE PAUSE of the DATA CENTER SALES AND USE TAX EXEMPTION PROGRAM under O.R.C. § 122.175, imposed by GOV. MIKE DEWINE in MAY 2026. The located source states only: 'Governor Mike DeWine paused the program,' 'In May 2026,' WITH NO STATED END DATE OR DURATION. INSTRUMENT CLASS — FISCAL, NOT LAND-USE. This dataset is overwhelmingly composed of zoning instruments that determine WHERE a facility may be built. A sales and use tax exemption determines WHETHER BUILDING IN THE STATE PENCILS AT ALL. Suspending it (a) operates statewide without municipal action, (b) requires no zoning authority, and (c) does not expose the state to the vested-rights or litigation-capacity failures recorded at Inver Grove Heights MN data center moratorium amended under lawsuit (2026) and the Rockford, Cle Elum, Salem, Lowell and Athens matters, because withdrawing a discretionary inducement is not a taking of an entitlement. THE FISCAL-LEVER COHORT NOW RECORDED IN THIS DATASET: Ohio bill to prohibit data center property tax exemptions (2026) (Ohio House bill to prohibit PROPERTY tax exemptions, introduced September 2026 by members largely representing urban areas), New Jersey Quijano AI data center delay and study commission bill (2026) (delaying subsidies and tax incentives alongside approvals), the New Jersey End Data Center Tax Credits Act reducing available credits from $500M to $250M for AI projects (S4390/A5165), the Illinois pause on its state data center incentives (recorded as a lead), and on the enabling side the Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission's $240M tax break for Sabey Data Centers and Kentucky's HB 8 fifty-year sales and use tax exemption. THE LEGISLATIVE BACKDROP, all already indexed as LegiScan imports and all PENDING: legiscan-active-oh-sb374 and legiscan-active-oh-hb957 would each amend § 122.175 to PROHIBIT NEW DATA CENTER SALES TAX EXEMPTIONS from being granted; legiscan-active-oh-hb646 is the sweeping data center bill amending §§ 122.17, 122.175 and 3745.015 and enacting numerous new sections on electricity, water and tax; legiscan-active-oh-hb775 touches § 122.175 within a much larger instrument. THE GOVERNOR ACTED WHILE ALL OF THESE REMAINED PENDING, WHICH IS THE ENTRY'S SIGNIFICANCE AND ALSO ITS WEAKNESS: an executive suspension of a statutory exemption program is revocable by the same or a successor Governor without legislative action, whereas SB 374 or HB 957 would repeal the authority. THE LEGAL BASIS FOR THE PAUSE IS NOT STATED IN THE SOURCE — whether it rests on the Development Services Agency's discretion over the granting of exemption certificates, on a directive to that agency, or on some other authority IS UNKNOWN, and the durability question turns on it. LOCAL CONTEXT: at least 138 Ohio municipalities and townships had active data center moratoriums as of 2026-09-17, 23 communities had effectively banned data centers, and at least 23 more across seven counties were considering it — the most extensive local response recorded anywhere in this dataset, of which this dataset indexes only a handful.