Ohio House Bill 646 stalled in summer 2026 after drawing 534 lobbying registrations, according to Signal Cincinnati. The measure would have cut in half a tax break that data centers receive in Ohio and added environmental and electric-use requirements for the facilities that house and run AI systems.
Registration filings require paid political advocates to name the clients they work for and the bills they work on. The outlet reported that the 534 registrations involved roughly 135 employers and about 225 lobbyists, with some advocates listed for more than one client.
For scale, the outlet compared the figure with Ohio's marijuana and hemp regulatory overhaul, which drew 450 registrations, and with five property tax bills signed by DeWine, which drew 165 to 356 registrations each.
The report also listed registered lobbyist counts in Columbus for technology firms: Google at 23, Meta at nine, Amazon at seven and OpenAI at five.
The source does not identify which interests backed or opposed HB 646, or attribute the bill's stall to any specific party beyond the volume of registrations. The lobbying totals reflect records available when the outlet published.