Secrecy · Utility power · Tax policy
Beaver Dam got a data center. The public got a black box.
Meta's Wisconsin campus is under construction, but the deal was assembled through layers of private entities, confidentiality agreements, utility negotiations, and tax policy. The question is not whether the project is real. It is what the public was allowed to see before the commitments became difficult to unwind.
The quiet deal
Wisconsin Watch reported that local officials used confidential agreements while Meta-linked Degas LLC and Balloonist LLC shielded the end user's identity. The reporting says Meta later confirmed its involvement and construction was underway. That is evidence of secrecy around the process, not proof of unlawful conduct.
The agreement and the bill
The City of Beaver Dam FAQ says the city and Beaver Dam Area Development Corporation signed an agreement with the site developer on December 9, 2024. The record also ties the project to Wisconsin's data-center sales-tax exemption and local approvals. A tax exemption is policy; it is not the same thing as a published subsidy amount or money spent.
Power behind closed doors
Wisconsin Watch reported that the Public Service Commission approved an Alliant-Meta contract while criticizing its lack of transparency, and that a transmission line was being built to serve the campus. Those are utility-service and planned-supply facts—not a disclosed energized capacity or data-center IT load.