Google’s move to TRIC adds more burden on Storey County Taxpayers shoulders.

In a move that will add to the burden of Storey County Services and add nothing to the already plummeting revenue stream, Google bought some land from Lance Gilman and Don Norman. Locating in the merry TRICsters tax avoidance business incubation site, we expect to see a mondo data center. And since the Silver State has looser laws than the Golden State dealing with the speed limit of self driving cars it is expected to host a testing track for Waymo, the Alphabet-owned company. The purchase of the 1,210 acres within the TRICster compound as reported by The Wall Street Journal on Monday. This follows the filing of documents detailing the transaction late last week which you can see here and here. Interesting documents were also listed for the Mustang Ranch conglomerate as well, but that is fodder for another story.

From Techcrunch:

“The purchase of land doesn’t mean Google is breaking ground on a new data center immediately; the report says there aren’t any plans in the books to start construction right away. But with increasing emphasis on its cloud-based business, it’s unlikely the company will sit idle on plans to build new data center infrastructure for long.

More interesting might be the WSJ’s assertion that several people suggested Google might use the site as a future testing facility for Waymo’s autonomous vehicles. Nevada is in the process of passing legislation that could see it eventually allow self-driving tests with potentially fewer restrictions than are in place for testing in California, which might make it a good site for high-speed testing of vehicles, above the 35 MPH cap currently in place in Google’s home state.

The theory that Google could use the land for testing of vehicles is based mostly on the regulatory conditions in Nevada, and its co-backing of the bill currently making its way through the legislative process, as well as the fact that the parcel of land is much larger than would be required for any single data center. Still, it’s an interesting possibility, and one that makes sense if Waymo wants to continue expanding its real-world testing capabilities.”

This announcement further highlights the reality that TRIC’ lead negotiator and Storey County Commissioner Lance Gilman  wears hats on both sides of the negotiating table allowing Google to cut the sweetest deal possible at the expense of the chumps, the Storey County Taxpayers.

Conflict of interest? Nah. Just Shrewd Business.

Stay Tuned

 

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Misty Van Havel pointed out that the above article was taken from a techcrunch article, not the WSJ as indicated. I made a mistake in the reference and should have done a more direct quote using a backlink and quotes. In my rush to get to an eye appointment in Reno (which showed up late for) I rushed the story out without taking the time to properly format it.

Lame.

Thanks for calling me out on that.

To your point about the burden to the county, in this case I promise you past performance is indicative of future results. I am in the process of requesting the documents to back up my claim. In the mean time Silver Slate aka Google aka Alphabet has in fact enriched the Storey County General Fund 0.001103655172414% of the $29,000,000 sale price of the land or $32,006.15.

While 32k is something, I think we all can agree it is right next door to nothing.