St. Joseph County property owners are being urged to back two major data center projects as a way to soften the blow of looming property tax revenue losses, according to an open letter from resident Larry Garatoni. In the letter, Garatoni warns that Indiana’s new law, Senate Enrolled Act 1, is estimated to cut St. Joseph County’s property tax revenue by about $90 million a year starting in 2027. He says no one yet knows whether that will mean cuts to government services, higher income taxes, or both, but argues that “difficult budgetary decisions” are coming. Garatoni points to two planned data centers – a $13 billion project west of South Bend and a $4 billion Microsoft data center in Mishawaka – as a “tremendous opportunity” to grow the county’s tax base and add high-paying technical

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