▲ 17 r/PublicLands
Trump seeks to open millions of acres of national forests to roads — The Washington Post
Trump seeks to open millions of acres of national forests to roads - The Washington Post
u/Real_Copy4882 — 1 day ago
u/Real_Copy4882
r/fuckkenpaxton r/PublicLands r/selfevidenttruth r/VTown r/JamesTalarico r/TexasPolitics r/centerleftpolitics r/ObscurePatentDangers r/technology r/FlockSurveillance r/dfw r/TheCreepState r/MetalsOnReddit r/climate r/LateStageImperialism r/NowInTech r/InterstellarKinetics r/Political_Revolution r/50501 r/TexasBusiness r/Utah r/economy
Eagle Mountain Utah 183% Property Tax Hike Tied to Data Center Tax Incentives
Eagle Mountain City Council approved a 183% property tax rate increase in August 2026, the first in 15 years, projected to raise roughly $5.5 million annually. Officials stated the funds would support a Utah County Sheriff’s Office contract and additional deputies. Residents organized a referendum effort, citing the scale of the increase and frustration over prior tax incentives granted to data centers.
Meta’s Eagle Mountain campus has operated under multi-year Community Reinvestment Area agreements providing substantial property tax abatements, including large shares of real and personal property increment relief originally valued in the hundreds of millions across phases. Similar Tax Increment Financing arrangements apply to other data center projects such as QTS. These incentives reduce the near-term tax contribution of high-value equipment relative to residential and commercial properties.
Utah’s Truth in Taxation framework and rapid depreciation of data-center personal property create structural volatility. Analyses from the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute show large data centers can initially lower certified rates through base expansion, then produce a “boomerang” effect as servers and equipment depreciate, shifting relative burden onto other taxpayers unless rates are adjusted.
Net risk lies in local governments absorbing infrastructure and service costs while large AI and cloud operators receive long-term preferential treatment. Oversight gaps include limited transparency on how freed sales-tax revenue will be allocated and the absence of mechanisms that automatically adjust residential rates when data-center incentives mature or equipment values change.
Sources
Eagle Mountain residents push for referendum following 183% property tax increase
KSL reporting on the August 2026 City Council approval, resident opposition, explicit frustration over data-center tax breaks, and referendum organizing.
Eagle Mountain City Council approves 183% rate increase to property taxes
Daily Herald account of the unanimous council vote, revenue target of approximately $5.5 million, and stated public-safety purpose.
Eagle Mountain residents file referendum to repeal 183% property tax increase
Coverage of the referendum filing and subsequent discussions of a possible reduced rate.
Data centers could initially lower some Utah property taxes - then create a ‘boomerang effect’
https://kslnewsradio.com/utah/data-centers-property-taxes-utah/2316530/
KSL NewsRadio summary of University of Utah Gardner Institute analysis on data-center personal-property depreciation and resulting tax-rate volatility for existing owners.
What happens to Utah taxpayers when a new data center comes to town? It depends on timing.
https://utahnewsdispatch.com/2026/08/12/new-data-center-impact-on-utah-taxpayers/
Utah News Dispatch report on Gardner Institute findings regarding temporary relief followed by rate increases as data-center equipment depreciates.
u/CollapsingTheWave — 2 days ago
OUTRAGE: Flock Safety CEO, Garrett Langley, Says “We’re Not Big Brother” As The Company Faces A 54-City Revolt, 71% License Plate Misread Rate, And Fallout From Wrongly Tracking Journalist, Joel Feder, Over “Stolen” Plates 📸😤
Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley is in full damage-control mode after his mass surveillance company, which operates 120,000 license plate reading cameras across 49 states and partners with 6,000 law enforcement agencies and 1,000 private customers, became the target of a growing nationwide backlash. Langley told Bloomberg “we’re not Big Brother” and insisted the company is “focused on protecting people,” even as at least 54 U.S. cities have voted to cancel, non-renew, or reject Flock’s automatic license plate readers since the start of the year. The pushback comes amid mounting reports of the technology’s misuse, including false arrests, a case of a crooked cop stalking innocent women, and a recent 404 Media report that Flock had been planning to infiltrate Uber and Lyft drivers’ dash cams to scan nearby vehicles’ plates at massive scale. The backlash has grown intense enough that people are being celebrated online for physically cutting down Flock’s surveillance towers.
In response to the scrutiny, Flock announced platform changes including a new audit tool requiring law enforcement customers to flag abnormal behavior, and a reduction in footage retention from 30 days down to seven. Civil liberties groups remain unconvinced. The American Civil Liberties Union called the moves a “step in the right direction” but dismissed other changes as “merely retreads of previous inadequate safety measures,” while Institute for Justice senior attorney Robert Frommer told the Associated Press, “this is window dressing that doesn’t address the fundamental problem, which is that police officers are the ones deciding who and when to search, and that should be done by judges with real warrants.” Despite the crisis, Flock’s business is thriving, with annual revenue climbing from $300 million in January to $500 million by June, according to Langley’s comments to Bloomberg, and the company is now pushing to expand into drones, surveillance trailers, and gunshot-detecting hardware.
The technology’s core function also remains deeply flawed. A Roseville, California police department investigation found the cameras mistook one license plate for another 71% of the time between 2023 and 2024. That failure rate isn’t abstract: The Drive’s director of content Joel Feder was wrongly flagged over “stolen” plates after Flock’s camera network misregistered his license plate number, leading police to ambush and box in his vehicle, accusing him of being unable to afford the “six-figure luxury SUV” he was driving. Flock directly referenced Feder’s case in its own announcement this week, stating, “the central point is simple, an alert is a lead, not a conclusion, which should be confirmed by an officer.”
u/InterstellarKinetics — 3 days ago
A Pentagon memo tells staff to spend $244m with Palantir. Its subject line is ‘Funding Palantir’
thenextweb.comu/Real_Copy4882 — 5 days ago
Eagle Mountain Utah Approves Property Tax Hike After Meta Data Center Tax Breaks Shift Costs to Residents
Eagle Mountain City Council approved a 183 percent property tax rate increase after proposing 220.88 percent to cover Utah County Sheriff’s Office contracts and add deputies. Meta’s Eagle Mountain campus received 100 percent personal property tax relief and 80 percent real property relief for up to 40 years from most local entities, with potential total incentives of 750 million dollars across phases of its more than 1.5 billion dollar facility.
Duncan Searcy and other residents challenged council members including Melissa Clark, noting the 1.5 trillion dollar company received decades of breaks while median homes face roughly 255 dollars more per year. Utah’s truth-in-taxation rules and rapid equipment depreciation create volatility that transfers fiscal pressure from large digital infrastructure onto residential taxpayers after initial base expansion.
Successive community reinvestment areas and interlocal agreements expand data center campuses through low-friction tax increment sharing that hardens into permanent infrastructure. Once locked, these arrangements leave cities short of stable revenue for public safety as growth continues.
Net risk is sustained household cost increases with limited local recourse after multi-entity deals are signed. Oversight gaps remain in incentive packages that prioritize scale over transparent net-revenue audits. Independent review of all pending tax-increment agreements and public accounting of actual returns from Meta and similar operators are required.
Sources
Eagle Mountain City Council approves 183% rate increase to property taxes
Reports the approved 183 percent increase, original 220.88 percent proposal, public-safety purpose, and resident comments including Duncan Searcy.
Your Property Tax, Explained
https://eaglemountain.gov/truth-in-taxation-property-tax/your-property-tax-explained/
Official city page detailing the proposed 220.88 percent rate change, average-home impact of 314 dollars, and 15-year history without increases.
Meta announces mega expansion to Facebook data center in Utah
https://www.ksl.com/article/50486760/meta-announces-mega-expansion-to-facebook-data-center-in-utah
Documents Meta’s Eagle Mountain expansion to over 1.5 billion dollars investment and potential 750 million dollars in tax incentives.
Facebook data farm in Eagle Mountain is expanding, as are its tax breaks
Details the 100 percent personal and 80 percent real property tax relief terms lasting up to 40 years plus Alpine School District caps.
What happens to Utah taxpayers when a new data center comes to town? It depends on timing
https://utahnewsdispatch.com/2026/08/12/new-data-center-impact-on-utah-taxpayers/
Summarizes Gardner Policy Institute findings on initial tax-base relief followed by depreciation-driven rate volatility that shifts costs to homeowners.
u/CollapsingTheWave — 7 days ago
Ken Paxton’s Political Operation Rakes In Data Center Donations as Texans Turn Against Industry
notus.orgu/Competitive_Path2576 — 7 days ago
As US offshore wind disappears, a generation of workers is left behind. Building trades spent the past five years preparing for an offshore wind boom that went bust. Now, US workers mourn the well-paying careers they don’t see coming back.
insideclimatenews.orgu/Real_Copy4882 — 11 days ago
Bastrop City Council Workshops Relocate 105 Miles to Fredericksburg Amid Flock Camera and Data Center Policy Talks
Bastrop City Council convened official workshops on August 6-7, 2026, at the John Wm. Klein Meeting Room, 115 N. Crockett Street in Fredericksburg, Texas, more than 100 miles from Bastrop. Agenda items explicitly listed data center policy under future goals and Flock camera technology under legislative priorities alongside budget, tax rate, and capital projects. The dual-use vector is the same Open Meetings Act framework that permits offsite sessions now applied to high-stakes surveillance and infrastructure decisions, reducing practical public access while formal notice and written comment options remain.
Citizen comments were limited to three minutes in person or written submissions reviewed offline. Structural issues include the physical distance creating a barrier for residents without vehicles or time, the absence of a legal requirement under the Texas Open Meetings Act that meetings occur inside city limits, and Bastrop Police Department’s existing Flock Safety ALPR data-sharing agreement with Texas DPS dated January 7, 2026.
Historical trajectory mirrors other Texas municipalities that have expanded Flock networks and approved data-center tax abatements with limited local input, as seen in EdgeConneX projects in Bastrop County. Left unexamined, remote venues for surveillance and industrial policy discussions harden low-transparency practices.
Net risk is asymmetric public participation when core issues of license-plate tracking and high-water industrial loads are decided far from affected residents, with oversight gaps in the lack of mandatory in-jurisdiction meeting rules and independent audits of Flock data flows.
Sources
https://texasscorecard.com/local/bastrops-city-council-holds-meetings-over-100-miles-away/
https://www.cityofbastrop.org/page/police.jobs%20-%20Copy
https://www.statesman.com/business/technology/article/data-centers-bastrop-county-22349254.php
u/CollapsingTheWave — 11 days ago
▲ 9 r/economy
As Social Security benefit cuts loom, Congress wades into the crisis — The Washington Post
As Social Security benefit cuts loom, Congress wades into the crisis - The Washington Post
u/Real_Copy4882 — 14 days ago