Incoming AI data center has roiled Independence. What do mayoral hopefuls think?
As Independence residents prepare to select their next mayor, both candidates’ support of a massive incoming artificial intelligence data center has taken center stage.
Bridget McCandless, a physician who has sat on the Independence City Council since 2022, will face off against Kevin King, a former Roofers Union Local 20 business manager who has not held another political office.
While the two mayoral candidates come from vastly different backgrounds, both campaigns have evolved to focus on reacting to the $150 billion AI data center set to break ground in Independence later this year. Multiple residents have told The Star that the candidates’ reactions to the incoming data center — a 400-acre project from Dutch company Nebius — have been key in informing their approach to the April 7 vote.
Both candidates have come out largely in support of the data center project in the wake of a $6 billion tax break package passed by the Independence City Council last week. The data center will benefit from a 90%-98% break on real and personal property taxes and will instead pay more than $650 million to schools, libraries and other city taxing jurisdictions over 20 years.
As the vote approaches, here’s what both mayoral candidates have said about Nebius and the $150 billion data center it’s bringing to Independence.
Bridget McCandless
As a current member of the Independence City Council, McCandless has spoken in favor of the data center on behalf of both herself and the city at multiple public forums. She was one of five votes in favor of the $6 billion series of tax breaks for the data center, with Councilmember Brice Stewart and Mayor Rory Rowland as the two dissenting voices.
She told The Star that the data center — and the revenue it would inject into local governments and schools — represents a “generational shift” for the city of Independence.
“We’re 200 years old, which means that we have both a long, wonderful history but also the opportunity to reshape ourselves for the next 200 years,” McCandless told The Star. “This gives us the freedom and latitude to do so.”
McCandless told The Star that while she has been supportive of Nebius’ plans for the site, she wants residents to “understand the gravity with which the council approached the issue.” She emphasized that she and the other current City Council members are not oblivious to the sustained outcry against the project that residents have mounted for months.
“It is hard to think that you would imagine that we don’t think about our community, we don’t care about our community,” McCandless said just before the March 2 vote finalizing tax breaks for the data center. “We live here too, and we want the best for Independence.”
In a video posted to her campaign page on Facebook this week, McCandless emphasized that the planned data center is the largest private investment project in Independence history, which she said will have a dramatic impact on a city where sales tax has been the primary source of municipal revenue.
“It allows us to do many of the things we haven’t been able to do,” McCandless said in the video.
Without any tax breaks, Nebius would owe over $6.9 billion in property taxes during the 20 years, or an average of $345.86 million per year. But the company had said it wouldn’t have been likely to move forward with a plan in Independence without the subsidies the city approved.
But even with the billions in tax breaks, the money the company is projected to pay taxing bodies would make a big difference, McCandless and other local leaders have said.
Nebius is set to pay about $651 million over those 20 years, which averages out to about $32.5 million per year that would go to Independence and Fort Osage schools, the library, Jackson County and other public agencies. And the city itself expects to bring in an additional $33-55 million per year tied to the electricity from Independence Power & Light that the data center would use.
The tax breaks were accompanied by what McCandless described as the “highest number of protections” she had ever seen in a series of contracts. Independence Mayor Rory Rowland previously said that Nebius had planned on a data center model that used significantly more water, but had altered their plans for the site in the early stages of discussion with the city.
The data center will use 1.4 million gallons of water per 200-megawatt building, city leaders have said. Nebius has compared that level of usage to a restaurant or office building.
McCandless has repeatedly referred to the site’s projected water usage as comparatively minimal. In the video shared to her campaign platforms this week, she said that she played an active role in working with Nebius to “safeguard” natural resources and greenspace around Independence when negotiating the project’s boundaries and standards.
“Any kind of consequential development is going to have pros and cons,” McCandless said at a January forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Kansas City.
Kevin King
King did not respond to requests for comment on his perspective on the data center.
However, he has maintained an active online presence and has spoken frequently on the project, sharing an evolving stance on the data center’s potential impact on the city. Overall, King has said that he is in favor of the project and its impact on the city’s financial future, but that he feels city leaders could have gotten a better deal from Nebius.
“In my opinion, this council did not negotiate from a position of strength,” King wrote on Facebook this week. “They accepted the deal that was put in front of them instead of demanding stronger protections for our citizens, and clearer benefits for Independence.”
King has said that he does not feel as though current city leaders are adequately transparent with residents about their current priorities and upcoming plans for Independence. Though he’s said he supports the data center, he has referenced its planning process as an example of poor communication from the city.
“City Hall should listen first, not answer later,” King said in a video posted to his campaign website in late January.
King has also said that though he is in favor of the data center, he supports the ongoing resident-led petition process currently seeking to put the $6 billion tax breaks to a public vote. City officials have said the effort lacks legal backing.
“Residents who are organizing the petition effort have every right to do so,” King wrote on Facebook this week. “When a decision this large is made, the people of Independence deserve the opportunity to speak up and, if they choose, take the issue to a vote.”
In a Facebook post shared this week, King described the 90-98% tax breaks offered to the Dutch AI corporation as “significant” and pledged to hold the company accountable to city codes and environmental standards if elected.
Residents have repeatedly raised concerns about potential light, noise, air and wastewater pollution from the project.
King was present in the audience at multiple town hall meetings leading up to the city’s vote on tax breaks for the data center. He has joined residents in criticizing the current City Council for what he describes as a hesitance to share detailed information about Nebius’ plans.
“When I asked questions about a lot of this, when I attended public meetings, I did not get any answers,” King said at the League of Women Voters forum in January. “That’s disturbing and, quite frankly, frustrating for people who want to learn more about this project. I think we need to slow the process down.”
Some of the strongest public support for the data center has come from labor unions around Independence, with leaders pointing toward the hundreds of construction jobs that the project will create. Multiple labor unions have also endorsed King, including Plumbers Local 8, The Greater Kansas City Building and Construction Trades Council and IBEW Local 124.
Last weekend, King visited several homes along Bly Road, which sits down the road from the planned construction site. Bly Road neighbors have been among the most outspoken critics of the data center and have previously called out city leaders for declining to visit the site in person.
“My responsibility is to protect taxpayers and make sure the commitments made to this community are actually delivered,” King wrote on Facebook last week.
Shared priorities
While King and McCandless have maintained different relationships to the data center project throughout their campaigns, both candidates have focused on municipal development, financial opportunity and future accountability when articulating their support for Nebius’ future flagship AI site.
McCandless and King have both repeatedly described the data center as the source of a necessary injection of cash into the city’s coffers. Both have repeatedly pointed to the Independence and Fort Osage School district’s growing needs for a stable external funding source.
“This is an opportunity for Independence that doesn’t come along very often,” McCandless told The Star, “when you think about the payments in lieu of taxes to our school districts and other community-driven entities, as well as the tax benefit to the city of Independence and the investment in utilities.”
Both candidates have pointed out that the tax breaks recently afforded to Nebius are contingent on a continued adherence to local, state and federal statute, and have pledged to hold the company accountable to noise and light limits and other regulations throughout the next three to five years of construction.
They’ve also both encouraged the potential for dozens of development projects across the city with the incoming cash infusion to Independence’s general fund, and have both touted the data center as an opportunity to create union construction jobs and update the city’s power grid.
“Big conversations will happen when trying to grow a city,” King said. “Leadership means staying focused on the fundamentals, and making decisions with long-term impact in mind.”
