Stoner told Ars that We Make Indiana is working to convince local officials to back the fair share agreement, potentially by using a county economic development director’s plan to create a “tax increment financing” (TIF) district around the Microsoft site as leverage. Microsoft has not publicly supported the TIF, but locals believe the company would benefit from the additional incentives and worry that it could use the TIF to expand the site.
“We are exploring whether the TIF can be leverage with Microsoft, with a message like ‘No TIF without a Fair Share,’” Stoner told Ars.
Microsoft seems to think that We Make Indiana shouldn’t speak for the entire community. But Stoner told Ars that engaging decision-makers on issues affecting the wider community is what his group does. Developing the fair share agreement involved “many, many, many conversations with our community leaders, with people in our congregations, with our leaders, to think about what it is we’re asking for and how and why,” Stoner said.
Some group members oppose AI, while others are neutral, but We Make Indiana has already won at least one major battle since entering the fight. A rumored Meta data center was blocked after the group rallied hundreds to pressure officials to vote against it at a public meeting that lasted until 4 am. The fight with Microsoft is not about stopping the data center, which is set to begin construction this fall and could be operational by 2029. It’s about building it better, Stoner said.
“We want development that doesn’t threaten our environment and our electric bills and that invests in a decent way, a proportional way,” he said.
Microsoft may be underestimating We Make Indiana. Stoner said the group has been organizing since 2024, building on work from a 2018 group called Faith in Indiana and using its community connections to secure bipartisan support for policies it favors. The Microsoft fight is the first time that We Make Indiana has engaged a corporate partner, Stoner said, and if they refuse to listen, the group stands ready to “mobilize hundreds of people from faith communities.”
“Basically, this is a question of power: Do they need to talk to us or not?” Stoner said. “Or do they think they don’t need to?”
To Stoner, giving tax breaks to AI firms while cutting funding for buses and childcare amounts to elected officials taking from the poor to benefit the wealthiest corporations. In the long term, he hopes to put an end to sales tax exemptions in his state. But in the meantime, he wants the fair share agreement to “be one of the big issues that’s debated in this election this fall,” Stoner said.