Tallahassee—The Republican-led Florida Legislature appears to be siding with far-left Progressive Democrats like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders, and not President Donald Trump, by embracing restrictive data center legislation.
President Trump recently stated that he was "all in" on data centers and even issued an executive order last summer to fast-track permitting for data center infrastructure construction at the federal level.
The Trump administration has also gone so far as to designate federally controlled land for data center construction specifically.
Again, while the President is backing data center development, the Mamdani and Sanders of the world, and now the Florida Legislature, are not.
Lawmakers have introduced legislation that would ban the development of data centers within 5 miles of any school, and recently passed anti-data center bills SB 484 and HB 1007.
HB 1007 is sponsored by Rep. Philip Wayne "Griff" Griffitts, Jr. (R)
The economic impact of these storage centers is massive and undeniable.
Just one one-gigawatt data center in Florida is estimated to create 45,367 temporary jobs, producing $2.4 billion in earnings and $176.8 million in state and local tax revenue within 18 months, according to Consumer Energy Alliance, and over time could generate $2.6 billion in annual income.
For the most part, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers support the construction of data centers, for obvious economic reasons, but what some are questioning is the aforementioned restrictions that are being attached to the bill.
During a recent House Commerce committee hearing, lawmakers, including Progressive Democratic Rep. Michelle K. Rayner, questioned the measure and even appeared to side with President Trump.
"I think that I believe there was public testimony that talked about how this bill does not create a pathway for economic development and private investment in job creation. And I would have to agree with that. Also, I mean, not that I care, but y'all may. Um, the House and the Senate bill really actually conflict with, um, the current sitting president's goal to accelerate America's development and data centers across the country," said Rep. Rayner.
Republican lawmakers also questioned the restrictions in Rep. Griffits' bill.
"Hey, Mr. Chair, and, uh, Representative, thank you for this bill. I can't support it today because I just really believe we have to maintain our free market approach. I know you're trying to do the right thing and protect this. I look forward to working with you as this bill moves forward," asserted Rep. Jason Shoaf.
Rep. Vanessa Oliver appeared to agree with Rep. Shoaf, going further to outline the deep economic impact here rural district would endure and how other states were outpacing Florida in the data center construction space.
"They are coming, whether we like them or not, and so to be able to address them upfront, I think is really important. Um, I represent a fiscally constrained role community. So at the same time that this legislature is proposing an elimination of residential property taxes, we really have to be equally serious about how rural counties diversify and strengthen their commercial tax base," said Rep. Oliver. "Data centers can be really transformational for rural communities like mine, and, um, I think that's really important to reducing their long term reliance on state assistance. So I don't want to inadvertently kneecap Florida's ability to compete with states like Texas, and Alabama, or Louisiana..."
"I will be up on this bill today, but not without highlighting my concerns that I think that putting in these sorts of barriers require these data centers to be essentially evicted from our from certain cities. We have certain cities in the state of Florida who have these urban boundaries, inside of these urban boundaries are entirely filled by residential communities, and if they don't allow construction outside of their urban development boundaries, then they're basically not allowed anywhere in these counties," added Rep David Borrero (R).
