A procedural vote stalled the agreement at the December 28, 2023, meeting, but the agreement passed unanimously Tuesday. Also, the Board selects a new chair and vice chair.
by Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The incentive agreement between Stafford County and Amazon for data centers passed on a 7-0 vote Tuesday night.
The agreement calls for a $6 billion investment in Stafford County and is projected to generate between $253 million in taxes by 2050 from the site at Potomac Church—and $732 million if additional site(s) come online.
The agreement came before the Board of Supervisors on December 28, 2023, for approval, but the Board failed to act on it after the agreement failed a procedural vote declaring it “time sensitive.”
Board members Crystal Vanuch, Darrell English, and Meg Bohmke voted against declaring it time sensitive at that time.
Because the agreement was raised during this week’s organizational meeting, a vote to declare the agreement time sensitive was required again. This time, the vote passed unanimously.
At the December 28 meeting, Vanuch suggested that approving the agreement over the holiday period had given some constituents the impression that something “shady” was going on. Several citizens—largely from Vanuch’s Rock Hill district—spoke at the meeting that night suggesting that the data center agreement was being pushed through.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Deputy County Administrator Michael Morris noted that the data center issue had been raised 17 times at Board of Supervisor or Planning Commission meetings between March and December 2023.
Morris and Commissioner of the Revenue Scott Mayausky were both asked if they’d received any calls since the meeting on December 28 about the data centers, and both said they had not.
New Chair, Vice Chair Elected
Meg Bohmke was voted as the 2024 chair of the Stafford Board of Supervisors on Tuesday by a 4-3 margin. She was supported by Vanuch, English, and the newest member of the Board, Deuntay Diggs.
Tinesha Allen was voted the 2024 vice chair, also by a margin of 4-3. She was supported by Monica Gary, Pamela Yeung, and Diggs.
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Is the Stafford agreement different from the one that was passed and now under review in King George?