Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn said he would raise taxes on data centers in the state by five times to lower property taxes for Iowans.
Speaking at a campaign event in Grimes April 2, Lahn said too often, large corporations and major agricultural companies treat Iowa as a place to extract what they need without doing enough to improve the state.
“These projects need to add value to the people of Iowa,” he said. “We’re not against development. We are wanting to go deep and build our culture and our traditions and keep them in our state, because there’s a large extraction that’s happening.”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn speaks at a campaign event in Grimes, April 2, 2026.
Lahn is one of five Republicans seeking his party’s nomination for governor in the June 2 elections. The winner will face state Auditor Rob Sand, who is the lone Democrat running for governor.
Lahn and his wife founded Homeplace Ventures, a company that invests in agriculture, real estate and technology. The pair also co-founded Wonder, a nontraditional private school in Wichita. They live on Lahn’s family farm in Belle Plaine with their seven children.
At the campaign event, Lahn said property taxes are the only long-term benefit a state gets out of major data center projects because they employ so few people.
He pointed to major data center construction projects from Google and QTS near Cedar Rapids.
The Gazette reports that QTS is set to receive tax rebates worth more than $500 million. The company said it expects to produce 15 permanent jobs during each of seven planned phases.
“Donald Trump would say we’re suckers,” Lahn told the crowd, eliciting boos from the crowd.
“The same footprint of manufacturing would employ hundreds of Iowans,” he said. “They are not doing it. And so the benefit we get is the property tax. And we should use those funds, if we’re going to say yes to a project like this again, to lower the property taxes in the community around there.”
Iowa lawmakers have said they want to pass a bill that reduces property taxes for Iowans this legislative session.
Competing House and Senate Republican property tax cut plans have advanced through both chambers’ tax-writing Ways and Means Committees with unresolved differences over how far to go in overhauling the system.
Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds told reporters in March that she remains confident they will be able to strike a deal before the session expires.
Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. She writes about campaigns, elections and the Iowa Caucuses. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on X at @brianneDMR.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa governor candidate Zach Lahn wants data centers to pay more taxes
