Meta is the company behind a proposed hyperscale data center campus spanning nearly 3,000 acres in Mason County, Judge-Executive Owen McNeill told the county Fiscal Court on Tuesday. A tentative agreement would provide millions of dollars a year to county government and public schools, but also give the project a local property-tax exemption lasting as long as 40 years. The agreement, made with a Meta subsidiary, calls for the company to invest at least $130 million in water and wastewater infrastructure, road improvements and public safety. It anticipates thousands of construction workers and 400 permanent employees. Under the proposed arrangement, Mason County would issue industrial revenue bonds for up to four decades. The structure would allow the county to own the data center property and lease it to the company, exempting the property from local taxes. In place of those taxes, the agreement sets annual payments of $5 million to the county and $2 million to the county school district. The school district could also receive millions in revenue from taxes on electricity sales. The company’s identity had been undisclosed for more than a year. Local officials signed nondisclosure agreements, a practice criticized by We Are Mason County, a residents’ group that says the public should have known who was proposing the project sooner. “Local residents should have known who was behind the project much earlier” so they could research the company and make sure it would be “a true good neighbor,” said Max Moran, the group’s executive director. Moran also questioned whether a decades-long property-tax exemption is consistent with Gov. Andy Beshear’s executive order calling for data center developers to pay their “full and fair share” of local taxes. McNeill said he believes investments like the project can help the county continue lowering residents’ taxes. Attorney Jim Parsons, who discussed the agreement at Tuesday’s meeting, said the payment arrangement is “not perfect” but guarantees a baseline of revenue for the school district. He acknowledged the company would receive an incentive, while arguing the deal could benefit both the company and the community. The proposed data center is part of a broader wave of large-scale projects that can bring construction work and infrastructure spending while raising questions about electricity and water demands, public oversight and the long-term tax base. The agreement remains tentative. Questions about the bonds and whether Meta is seeking additional state tax incentives had not received responses from county officials, Meta or the governor’s office by Wednesday, according to the information provided.