Case In Point: The Corporate Capture of America’s Local Governments & Goochland County
I think there’s something I hate more than people using LLMs as if they think – corporate capture.
I never thought I’d get involved in actual politics. Never thought I would speak at local hearings – what’s the point right? That was, until Goochland County decided to encourage data centers to construct a few thousand feet from my house with near zero regulations – all in the name of “creating high tech jobs” and “diversifying tax revenue”.
Let’s be clear. Data centers do not create high paying jobs – at least not at the local level. They may indirectly create high paying jobs in some other city completely outside of where the new data center is located, but they do not create high paying jobs where the data center is built. There are one of the lowest, if not THE LOWEST employees per 1,000 square feet of industrial space. At 0.1 employees per 1,000 square feet.
To top that off, data centers consume more water than the entirety of Goochland county consumes from public infrastructure. Does Goochland’s board care? No. Despite 3 meetings with record public turn out and an over 99% DISAPPROVAL RATING based on FOIA requested responses to this proposal – Goochland has officially voted to approve the “Technology Overlay District”. Public comments be damned. Heck, Eastern Goochland, where these data centers will be located don’t even get residential fiber – but yeah sure let’s throw a giant data center there that will not only double the water consumption of the area, raise the electricity rates of the residents, but also it will for sure have the high speed fiber that residents don’t get because Goochland doesn’t see the need to expand fiber to the Eastern Goochland residents.
I used to think local governments were too small for corporate capture. After all, what kind of business would waste their time on the small fries when you can buy favors at the state and federal level? But no, if there’s one thing the OpenAI/Nvidia massive LLM hype machine is doing, it’s showing that local governments are bought just as much and frankly even more blatantly than state and federal officials. These five board members ran unopposed to get elected, you would think they actually want what’s good for the area, yet they quite frankly were blatant in their lack of desire to hear people out. During the multiple 6+ hour public hearings, there was not a single person speaking out in favor of the proposal. Not one board member even seemed interested in anything the public had to say. Their closing remarks about voting for the TOD were pre-written. The proposal had day-of amendments. Who votes on proposals hours after they suddenly change?
Corporate capture is one of the most dangerous things that can happen to local governments. When 99% of the area says they do not want something but the government goes on and gives their stamp of approval, that’s not just antithetical to democracy, it’s complete capitulation to industries that have huge financial incentives to screw over the community. I expected more from Goochland. At least I can be proud of the residents.