MORGANTOWN – A ruling from the West Virginia Office of Tax Appeals regarding the taxation of personal property for data centers and other “high technology” businesses is going to cost the county’s levying bodies $494,461.08.
The Monongalia County Commission on Wednesday approved an exoneration for Blockchain Power Corp., which operates Bitcoin mining data centers exclusively in West Virginia on portions of abandoned coal mine properties.
The property in question in this case is the Blacksville No. 2 mine, which ceased operations in 2021 resulting in the loss of 180 jobs.
When the Monongalia County Assessor’s Office valued the repurposed site for the 2025 tax year, Blockchain Power Corp. lobbied that the site should be assessed at a special valuation rate spelled out in the West Virginia High-Technology Business Property Valuation Act (WV Code 11-6J-3).
The act is an incentive for the development of data centers and other tech industry interests which requires property be valued for property tax purposes at 5% of acquisition costs, or salvage rate, instead of the normal 60%.
“We asked for a taxability ruling from the state tax commissioner on that. The tax commissioner ruled that they were not eligible for that high technology [valuation] just based on there wasn’t enough information that was provided,” Chief Deputy Assessor Patrick Tenney explained. “Blockchain Power appealed that ruling in July of last year. It ended up going to the Office of Tax Appeals.”
Ultimately, Tenney said, the WV Office of Tax Appeals granted the special valuation based on information that was provided by the company during the appeal hearing.
After initially asking what would happen if the county commission failed to approve the exoneration, and hearing it was likely an inevitability, Commission President Tom Bloom voted in favor of the change, which passed unanimously.
Bloom said he has concerns about the continued efforts from West Virginia lawmakers to push incentives for data centers.
“This is a perfect example of why I’m so concerned about the future if they bring in all these other companies,” he said. “We’re being told by the state that they want to bring in these businesses. They go against our local assessors and say, ‘No, it’s at 5% because it’s salvage.’ But they’re making the same amount of money. This is unfair to the citizens of Monongalia County who pay their fair taxes. I say to the state government, you keep saying you want them in, then let them pay their fair share.”
According to media reports, Blockchain’s Blacksville operation utilizes hydrocooling, which recycles approximately 200,000 gallons of water pulled from the Monongahela River.
According to the company’s website, its five West Virginia sites are driven by “10 megawatts to 100 megawatts of reliable power.”
The company says it intends to expand its Bitcoin data center capacity to 200 megawatts by the end of this year and add 24 technicians to its roster of 45 statewide.
