The Antidote to Data Center Backlash Is Writing Tax Revenue Into Teacher Paychecks
In a Louisiana parish, Meta routed the sales-tax surplus from its data center straight into teacher salaries, with one teacher netting about $45,000 more a year — the conclusion being: build real impact first, then talk about how you communicate it.
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The teacher paycheck became the data center's permit
Louisiana law sends the sales-tax surplus straight into teacher salaries, so every purchase on the construction site turns into a line on a paycheck. The Richland Parish school district's sales-tax collection growth was running 5% to 10%; after the site broke ground it rose to 60% to 70%, peaking at 260% during the construction workforce surge. The district's half-cent sales-tax check went from about $4,000 a year to about $8,000, and then one teacher's annual check rose by roughly $45,000 net. The parish's average salary before that was only $36,000 to $38,000. Dina stresses this was not Meta's idea — it is what local law requires.
— SheldonMeta pays hurricane bills in a state it doesn't operate in
Jason lists the community's legitimate concerns: pollution, power prices, water, noise, building appearance. Susan's answer is that these were settled in the original agreement: the site was farmland, Meta chose a more expensive but more water-efficient system, and water use is lower than when the land was farmed; on power, Louisiana has about 32,000 miles of natural gas pipelines, and Meta through Entergy pays from day one for generation, grid resilience and grid upgrades, and also absorbs hurricane damage — in a state it does not operate in, effectively taking the burden off local ratepayers. She argues that because these were addressed up front, they never became public issues.
— SusanDina says blocking America is the adversary's playbook
Dina first concedes the concerns are legitimate and that the industry has not communicated well; but her core claim is about sequencing — real impact first, narrative second. She says Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Cotton and Vice Chairman Mark Warner believe there is evidence adversaries are artificially amplifying the backlash, which she declines to comment on, and reframes the question: if you wanted to stop America right now, the thing you would most want is for America to stop building data centers and stop pursuing AI dominance. Her conclusion is that communities that want the jobs and teacher bonuses should get them, those that don't want them can opt out, but American companies should not be forced to build data centers overseas.
— Dina Powell-McCormickCan't hire fiber techs, so build your own school
What blocks data centers is people, not money. Meta couldn't find enough fiber technicians, so it built a five-week crash course that guarantees a job on its own sites upon graduation. Dina cites David Sachs: there are 500,000 such job openings coming in the next few years, and the gap isn't the jobs — it's the waiters, rideshare drivers and home health aides who can't afford unpaid training time. So America's Workforce Academy pays people the job wage during training: 40,000 applied over four months, 250 graduated, 90% retention. The program deliberately does not carry Meta's name, and Google's Ruth Porat and BlackRock's Larry Fink are both adding people to the same coalition. Dina's line: we will compete on models and products, but we don't want to compete on people.
— Dina Powell-McCormickThe settlement's killer clause makes rivals join in
Meta reached a settlement with 52 bipartisan state attorneys general, and Dina says the terms themselves set an industry standard: users under 18 in signatory states get two hours a day, with automatic shutoff at the limit, a full overnight shutdown, no notifications during school hours, and parents with extensive controls that can override defaults. More unusual is the structure: Meta agreed to put up another $500 million on the condition that YouTube, TikTok and Snap join in, at which point the limit drops to one hour a day. The reasoning is that users switch from one app to another, so one company alone can't shut it off. Some in the room argued this is something parents should handle, not government, and sensed a bit of a tech-company hunt in it.
— Dina Powell-McCormickSet the reward function to time spent and even Word traps you
This segment ties teen addiction and AI safety together: RSI, recursive self-improvement — define a reward function for an AI and let it improve itself, and it will keep getting stronger. Set the reward function to time spent, and any app — from World of Warcraft to Angry Birds, even Word — will balloon. The mechanism is used to explain why platforms must set a threshold themselves and shut off at the limit, rather than relying on competition or users' self-discipline. The room's judgment is that this term will come up again and again over the next 18 months.
AI makes glasses useful as a form factor for the first time
Dina is repeatedly asked about the reuse cases for glasses, and her answer is that engineers worked on it for a decade and success hinges on weight and appearance — if it isn't fashionable, nobody wears it. Functionally it cuts both ways: conversation focus can leave only the voice of the person across from you amid restaurant noise, and translation can read street signs and conversations directly. The most unexpected use case came from blind veterans: they designed features together with Meta engineers, and one veteran put on the glasses, dialed his son, and cried, because it was the first time he had called his son on his own. Someone in the room added: in the Google Glass era the battery, the bulk and the look were all wrong, and now those obstacles are gone.
— Dina Powell-McCormickZuck thinks the more widespread AI is, the more stable society gets
Asked about Dario's piece calling for regulation, Dina says safety is a precondition, that Mark talks about it every day, and that the team led by Alex Wang and Nat Friedman works on safety too. The disagreement is over path: Mark's judgment is built on 20 years of connecting people — 3.6 billion people use Meta's platforms daily, 200 million small business owners do business on them — so he believes the more widely this technology is distributed, the more ordinary people can get education, healthcare and potential they never imagined, and the better that is for society as a whole. His position in the piece titled The Future is for Everyone is that democratizing AI leads to a more stable society. Meta released its first American open-source model just a few weeks ago.
— Dina Powell-McCormickIn their own words · checked verbatim
So in December of 2025, we gave out a one-half cent sales tax check. That check doubled from the previous year. So it went from roughly about $4,000 to about $8,000.
Sheldon6:22
I don't think that our industry has done a good job communicating. Just flat out. We have to do a better job.
Dina Powell-McCormick15:43
if you wanted to stop America right now, what would you do? This is exactly what you would try to do.
Dina Powell-McCormick16:47
if you're a waitress or you're an Uber driver or you are a home health care worker, you live paycheck to paycheck. You cannot afford to take that time off unpaid.
Dina Powell-McCormick21:59
we might compete on models and products, but we don't want to compete on people.
Dina Powell-McCormick24:05
you put it into an RSI loop and you add the reward function being time, all these apps will proliferate.
He said, that's the first time I've ever called my son on my own independently.
Dina Powell-McCormick39:43
Figures
| Peak sales-tax collection growth, Richland Parish school district | 260% | 6:22 |
| Net increase in a teacher's annual sales-tax check | about $45,000 | 7:30 |
| US public opinion on data centers | poll at negative 80 | 7:30 |
| Average salary in Richland Parish before the investment | $36,000–$38,000 | 9:33 |
| Total natural gas pipeline mileage in Louisiana | about 32,000 miles | 13:36 |
| America's Workforce Academy | 40,000 applied, 250 graduated, 90% retention | 21:59 |
| Related technical job openings | 500,000 over the next few years | 21:59 |
| Meta's settlement with 52 state attorneys general | $17 billion | 28:13 |
| Additional settlement amount to bring rivals in | $5 billion, under-18 daily limit drops to 1 hour | 29:15 |
| Scale of Meta's platforms | 3.6 billion daily users, 200 million small business owners | 41:44 |
Glossary
- RSI (recursive self-improvement)
- The loop in which an AI is given a reward function and let loose, improving its own capabilities continuously.
How to listen
Founders, investors and government-affairs teams watching AI infrastructure land, community permitting and policy risk.
The Meta glasses product walkthrough and the blind veteran video can be fast-forwarded.