Vineland, NJ - Cumberland County’s four Democratic nominees are facing sharp criticism of their tax and financial records three weeks before Election Day, with the sharpest attack aimed at votes on hiking electric rates for residents and providing lower rates for large users like data centers.
The scrutiny comes as voters are increasingly over DataOne, a large industrial data center located in Vineland, amid a national movement away from sweetheart deals for the generally unregulated industry.
Ronald Franceschini, a Vineland councilman from 2017 through 2024 and current Commissioner candidate, voted yes on Ordinance 2018-17 on March 27, 2018. It raised the municipal utility’s current residential rates, starting at 13.028 cents per kilowatt-hour, 1 cent above a rate the Franceschini lead the council to reject unanimously in June 2017.
The council then passed Ordinance 2018-20 on April 10, 2018. It set the energy charge for the city’s largest customers, like data centers, to 8.78 cents per kilowatt-hour in summer and 7.78 cents in winter.
This means that a customer the size of Vineland’s 300-megawatt data center, on the large-user transmission rate, would pay about 9.6 cents per kilowatt-hour at a 90 percent load factor, or roughly $227 million a year. In comparison, a household’s base rate runs about 12 cents in winter and 13 cents in summer for typical use. A large user like DataOne would end up paying $55 million to $90 million less than residents, low-use entities and small businesses, with the difference partially offset by the rate hike on less substantial users.
Franceschini also voted for measures that helped the developer of the DataOne site, personally advancing a 2018 tax exemption for NEP Real Estate of Vineland, NJ Urban Renewal and a 2020 amendment to its redevelopment agreement.
Republicans have seized on the Democratic ticket’s pro-datacenter subsidy agenda, launching attacks that mirror similar attacks playing out nationwide as voters rebel against taxpayer-funded subsidies for the tech industry.
Voters decide the county’s commissioner seats and the sheriff’s race on Nov. 3.