By Deb Hogshead

Guest Column in Miami Valley Today, January 18, 2026

The proposed data center in Piqua brings home an important fact: Corporate power and big money affect us locally—and a local response is necessary to help rein in their influence over issues that affect us directly and indirectly.

Like folks in other Ohio communities, including Sidney, Piqua residents raised objections upon learning of plans to build a data center in their hometown. Among their concerns, which I share, are threats to the environment and limited water resources, and questionable promises of economic development and stable residential electric bills. But the deal was already done, slid secretly into the community under a nondisclosure agreement.

Nondisclosure agreements are just one tool in the tech industry’s tool box.

As true of any large corporate entity, big tech companies have lots of money and a “constitutional” right to spend it—and they spend it to garner support in Congress and state legislatures for such things as limited regulation and the fast-tracking of approvals.

Big Tech can do this thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court. Since 1886 and the Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad decision, the court has considered a corporation a person with constitutional rights. In 1976, the court ruled in Buckley v. Valeo that spending money on campaign communications is equivalent to 1^st Amendment protected speech. In 1978, it ruled in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti that a corporation has a 1^st Amendment right to influence an election. More recently, the court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission led to the rise of Super PACs and even more money flowing into politics, often from unnamed donors.

I list below a few figures based on information publicly available through OpenSecrets.org.

$33,333,888 – Total contributions in 2024 to federal candidates, made by individuals and affiliates associated with Amazon, Microsoft, Palantir Technologies, and Meta. (OpenSecrets.org gave no information for Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company.)

$2,571,866 – Total contributions during the 2023-2024 election cycle, from political action committees for Amazon, Microsoft, Palantir Technologies, Meta, and Alphabet.

$57,925,000 – Total spent in 2025 on lobbying Congress, by Amazon, Microsoft, Palantir, Meta, and Alphabet.

These same companies pay lobbyists to influence Ohio legislators and executives. According to the Ohio Lobbying Activity Center, Amazon currently has 7 registered lobbyists, Microsoft has 1, Meta 13, and Google 18. They are joined by lobbyists representing groups such as the Ohio Business Roundtable, which wants to streamline the permitting process for data centers, and Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Ohio and the Buckeye Institute, both of which want fewer permit restrictions.

Public opposition to the proliferation of data centers has grown. So has awareness of our power grid’s limitations and the need to upgrade at considerable expense. In July 2025, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) ruled those costs should be borne by the companies that own the data centers, as opposed to expecting small businesses and ordinary ratepayers to pick up the tab. The tech industry has objected, given the investments companies have already made in Ohio. Sharing this discontent is the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, whose lawyers have appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court, claiming the ruling amounts to discrimination against certain types of utility customers. 

Discriminating against a person based on race, sex, and other immutable characteristics is wrong and illegal. A corporation, however, is not a person. And a big corporation that poses risks to the quality of life in our local communities should be discriminated against, or at least held to higher expectations.  

I’m not saying Big Tech (or any corporate entity) shouldn’t have a voice. Nor am I saying a big tech company shouldn’t have privileges, “statutory” rights, and protection from government overreach. What I am saying is Big Tech’s voice should never be louder than ours or carry greater weight with our representatives. And a corporation of any kind, which is created on paper through a chartering process, should not have inherent, inalienable constitutional rights same as you and me.

If we are to regulate money in politics and end the misguided doctrine of “corporate constitutional rights,” we must pass the proposed We the People Amendment, House Joint Resolution 54 in the current Congress.

January 21 is the 16^th anniversary of the Citizens United decision. Use this day to call Reps. Mike Carey and Warren Davidson and urge them to cosponsor the We the People Amendment.

And encourage your local elected officials to go on record in support of the We the People Amendment. Given what’s happening with data centers across Ohio, municipal leaders cannot defend inaction by saying money in politics and corporate power are not relevant to their work as public servants.