--- title: "Residents Reject $10,000 Each to Let a Data Center Set Up in Their Town" description: "A prospective data center in Pennsylvania is facing drastic opposition, despite a promised $10,000 direct payout to every resident." date: "2026-10-15" modified: "2026-10-15" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/residents-reject-bribe-data-center-amazon-pennsylvania" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" --- # Residents Reject $10,000 Each to Let a Data Center Set Up in Their Town ![A business man handing over stacks of dollar bills.]() *Shutterstock / Futurism* In the American psyche, data centers have become [so reviled]() that big tech can't even pay residents life changing money to welcome the facilities into their backyards. That's not an exaggeration: voters in the former coal-mining community of Hazle Township, Pennsylvania are mobilizing en masse against a massive Amazon Web Services facility that would come along with a $10,000 direct cash dividend to every resident. That's according to reporting [by *PennLive*](), which notes that nearly 17 percent of the township's residents live below the federal poverty line. Despite the possibility of a $10,000 payout, residents are organizing to reject both the data center campus itself — named "[Project Hazelnut]()" by the developer NorthPoint Development — and a lengthy stretch of power lines meant to supply power to the facility. As *PennLive* observes, the $10,000 scheme is an unusual attempt by a data center developer to smooth over opposition in a section of the country which is [overwhelmingly opposed]() to the facilities. "We think it's creative. We've not seen (anything like) this," executive director of the Pennsylvania Ethics Commission Mary Fox told *PennLive* of the strategy. Yet residents of Hazle Township aren't swayed by the prospect of fast cash, viewing it as a payoff, and a weak one at that. "It's like bribery," as local resident Brian Malloy told *PennLive*. "Our property values are going to drop. Dramatically," said Ed Negra, a homeowner and small business owner who characterized the $10,000 as a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of allowing Project Hazelnut to go forward. "If that's not a bribe, I don't know what is." The matter is far from settled, though it doesn't help that both state and local officials are acting shifty. Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, for example, has [previously characterized]() the project as a "technology campus," using an executive order to fast-track the process by which developers can erect data center facilities across Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, *PennLive* reports that Hazle Township supervisor Anthony Griguoli has struggled to present a united front with NorthPoint Development, even as his office works to engineer a zoning ordinance which would allow Project Hazelnut to plow forward. When residents cornered Griguoli at a town meeting in August about the $10,000 bribes, he shrugged that "that's what they're saying they want to do," adding that "I don't even know if that's legit, that it's going to happen." **More on data centers:** *[This Graph of Data Center Spending Compared to All Other Construction Will Give You Chills]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()