Expecting enterprises to invest billions of dollars into building new data centers in the coming years, many US states are competing to attract as much of that investment as possible home.

One of these states is Missouri, where new bills that seek to create aggressive tax breaks for new data center construction and operation are moving through both chambers of the state legislature.

According to a report by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry on four bills that have been introduced in the State Senate and House of Representatives, lawmakers sponsoring the tax breaks are aiming to attract a portion of more than $10 billion they expect to be invested in new data center construction in the nation over the next three years.

"If we are successful in competing for these high-tech facilities, the benefit is two-fold," president and CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce said in a statement.

"The high-tech permanent employment is our direct target but the construction jobs that would result from a $500 million data center could generate thousands of jobs for many years."

According to the Missouri Chamber, the state's already existing attributes that make it an attractive place for data centers are cheap and abundant power, availability of dark fiber and a ready workforce.

Legislation currently on the table in the Senate and the House includes language that would exempt all utility-type services provided to data centers, including telecommunications, from sales tax.

Another sales-tax exemption is considered for rental of equipment and materials used for construction, repair and remodeling of for the purpose of housing data centers, according to the Chamber's report.

Bills that contain the above provisions are Senate Bill 868 and House Bill 1513.

Another two bills being considered include provisions for 99.5 percent reduction of annual property tax on IT equipment and a tax credit for any company that chooses to locate a data center in one of the "qualifying" areas (to be identified by the state government).

The credit would equal five percent of the new facility's entire cost in addition to 10 percent of new gross wages paid to permanent employees at the said facility over ten years.

These provisions are in Senate Bill 999 and House Bill 2026.

The Chamber's report cites a joint study by The Associated General Contractors of America and George Mason University, which estimated that $1 billion of investment in non-residential construction in the state can create or sustain 21,000 jobs.

Of these jobs, 7,000 would be located in Missouri while construction goes on.

The study concluded that net impact of such a project would eventually add $2.4 billion to the state's GDP and $690 million to personal earnings.