The Georgia House of Representatives this week received a bill seeking to “exempt the sale or use of electricity used in the commercial mining of digital assets.”
As reported by The Block, the bill, listed as 1342, was introduced on Monday, February 14, by a group of Republican lawmakers in the state.
As such, the legislation would amend Section 48-8-3 of the Official Code of Georgia, relating to sales and use tax exemptions, in order to exempt Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency miners for the sale or use of electricity used in such operations.
The idea of the bill is to attract companies in the cryptocurrency sector , but it has not yet been approved by lawmakers.
Fortune profiled the landscape earlier this year and noted that major U.S. cryptocurrency companies, such as Foundry, have operations in the state of Georgia.
Separately, a 13WMAZ report published last year indicated that access to nuclear power placed the state as an attractive option for Bitcoin mining operators.
Illinois seeks to extend tax incentives to cryptocurrency miners
A few weeks ago, lawmakers in Illinois, the state that is home to the populous city of Chicago, also put a similar proposal on the table for discussion.
Initially introduced in January by Republican state senator Sue Rezin, the bill would seek to extend incentives currently applicable to data centers to crypto mining operations. The legislative document, filed as 3643, highlights the regulation’s claim to provide tax benefits to miners:
Amends “qualified Illinois data center” to include data centers dedicated to cryptocurrency mining for a 60-month period that may begin no earlier than 60 months before the effective date of this Act; or data centers dedicated to cryptocurrency that begin before the effective date of this Act and end after the effective date of this Act in the case of a data center.
As The Block notes, the tax incentive program cited in the bill has been in existence since 2019. According to a mid-2020 report prepared by the Illinois Department of Commerce, tax incentives worth more than USD$160 million have been extended to six data center operators. The report cites the creation of 120 jobs and USD$1.6 billion in investments.
To qualify for the program, prospective applicants must invest at least USD$250 million, create at least 20 jobs and have achieved carbon neutral status or green building certification, among other requirements. The program exists for both new entrants and existing operations in the state, provided they meet the requirements.
According to the text of the bill, this program would extend to miners of digital currencies such as Bitcoin. A Chicago Tribune report last year mentions some of the existing mining operations in Illinois, including an operation run by a company called Sangha Systems, located in a former steel mill in Putnam County.
