The Prince William County circus is never short on sideshows.
In eastern Prince William, we’re gambling on “The Rose.” In western Prince William, we’ve bet the house on data centers.
Opinion
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Editors note: This post appeared on March 28, 2023, as a video on our Youtube channel.
If you missed the story we posted on March 24, 2023, a historic tax increase is proposed for Stafford County residents. The real estate property tax could increase by 40% over last year.
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There were audible guffaws upon learning that Chair Ann Wheeler was to be a guest speaker for the Prince William County Green Business Council’s 2023 Spring Conference.
Is their “green” shorthand for greenbacks? We all wondered if she was going to ride in on an opulent bulldozer.
In recent years, residents of Prince William County have likely heard me promote the financial benefits data centers bring to our county. The tax revenue they generate and will continue to contribute for years to come is essential to our ability to boost funding for schools, social services and other county priorities while decreasing the tax burden on county homeowners.
What often goes unheralded, however, are the many ways data centers and their employees contribute to and strengthen our community. In 2022 alone, those contributions have had a tremendous impact.
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As you consider the County’s budget, I request that you repeal the 4% Meals Tax on restaurant food. The following are my reasons.
The tax is unfair and unhealthy. Restaurants prepare fresh food daily; grocery stores sell the same food in frozen, refrigerated, and dehydrated forms. Restaurants like mine start with unadulterated raw ingredients; grocery foods, by necessity, contain chemical preservatives and stabilizers. Cooks who live and pay taxes in the County prepare restaurant food; factory workers in faraway locations manufacture grocery food.
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On September 22, 2022 that Sustainability Commission unanimously passed resolution #22-007 which recommended several “fast-track” measures to put the county on a trajectory to achieve those goals.
Among their recommendations were: “Prohibit the building of new backup power generation using diesel and/or petroleum in favor of less carbon-intensive generation and encourage the conversion of existing diesel and/or petroleum backup systems to less carbon-intensive generation.”
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Since this Board of County Supervisors took office in January, 2020, Ann Wheeler has marshaled her fellow Democrats on a determined path to open Prince William County to the data center industry with little due diligence to their impacts on the environment or the residents.
Ask yourself, is this why you chose to live in Prince William County?
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While I applaud your latest opinion piece about data centers, there was one aspect of it that I take issue with:
“We hear former Deputy County Executive Rebecca Horner has been sent back to the county planning department after several recent departures we told you about last week. She’s familiar with the planning office — she ran the place until she was promoted to deputy county executive in 2020. She may right the ship and create a plan because she’s one of the few people still around with institutional knowledge.”
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Data from the Virginia Public Access Project (Elections: Prince William County Prince William County Supervisor – Gainesville (vpap.org) shows Democrat Kerensa Sumers raised $46,583, while Republican Bob Weir raised $20,005.
Sumers largest donors ($1,000 or more) included: