A comparison of how ten states evaluate their tax incentives: who does the work, what gets reviewed, and what happens to programs after an evaluation. Current as of September 2026.
Interactive version: jphoebus.github.io/tax-incentive-evaluation
States spend billions each year through tax credits and exemptions, and many have built formal processes to check whether those incentives work. This comparison looks past whether a process exists to how it is designed and what it has produced. It is a companion to the data center incentive comparison, which covers what five states give. This one covers whether states check.
The five states in the data center comparison (Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, and Georgia), plus five states with established statutory evaluation requirements, each representing a different evaluation model and region: Washington, Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Florida. All five were rated leading states in The Pew Charitable Trusts' 2017 national assessment. The selection leaves room to expand.
- Findings are advisory everywhere. None of the ten states requires its legislature to act on an evaluation. What varies is who chooses what gets reviewed, and when the findings arrive.
- Design shapes what gets reviewed. Pennsylvania's review cycle covers tax credits. Maryland's mandatory cycle covers major business credits, with exemptions reviewed on request. Georgia's reviews follow committee requests and approaching sunsets. Among the five data center states, the fast-growing sales tax exemptions mostly sit outside a mandatory schedule.
- Findings carry weight at decision points. Florida's Enterprise Zone Program expired at its scheduled sunset after weak return-on-investment findings. Oklahoma narrowed its wind credit during a budget shortfall. Maryland extended and revised its historic credit when it came up for renewal. Recommendations without a deadline attached have been easier to set aside.
- Georgia's data center exemption will come under the state's new requirement to evaluate large incentives before they expire as its 2031 sunset approaches.
- Maryland lawmakers can request an evaluation of the data center exemption as the repeal debate begins in January.
- Virginia's Joint Subcommittee on Tax Policy reports on its data center exemption by December 15, 2026.
- Pennsylvania's data center debate may raise the question of whether sales tax exemptions belong in the Act 48 review cycle.
Across all ten states, a key question is whether states time their evaluations to the moments when lawmakers must decide, such as sunsets, renewals, and budget cycles.
The full comparison is in tax-incentive-evaluation.csv, with one row per state and 14 columns covering the governing law, the evaluator and evaluation model, review cycle, scope, whether sales tax exemptions are covered, whether legislative action is required, how findings reach lawmakers, and documented outcomes. Each row lists its sources. Where a detail could not be confirmed, the file says so rather than guessing. This comparison is for policy analysis and is not tax or legal advice.
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I'm Joshua Phoebus. I spent seven and a half years in Pennsylvania state government, including four years as Director of Performance and Transformation in the Office of Governor Tom Wolf, where I led the Commonwealth's performance-based budgeting engagement across twenty-nine executive agencies and guided agencies on compliance with the tax credit reviews required under Act 48.
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/joshuaphoebus
- Website: joshuaphoebusllc.com