In an end-of-the-year interview with WTOP, Chair of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors Deshundra Jefferson covered everything from data centers to federal job cuts to tax breaks.
Jefferson said she’s been proud of how they’ve been able to put aside differences for progress.
“The fact that we are able to work together and reach across the aisle has been amazing,” she said. “If Prince William County wants to continue on our current trajectory, if we want to continue to grow, if we want to be a community of choice, we have to pull together to make that happen.”
One of the biggest changes Jefferson was excited about this year was a tax cut that she said has been a long time coming.
“The board was able to lower the personal property tax, aka the dreaded car tax, for the first time in 35 years. That is a significant accomplishment, and it was a bipartisan vote,” she said.
With residents pushing back on the addition of data centers, Jefferson said, “Yes, they bring revenue to counties, but they also have a huge opportunity cost, and that’s one of the things we’re really starting to grapple with.”
She said she’s unsure of what data centers will look like in the future with technological advancements.
“I sometimes wonder if we’re in a bubble with data centers,” she said. “I do think that they will evolve. I do think at some point they will not need as much space.”
Jefferson said that there’s a lot that they don’t know about data centers and there’s a lot more information to come.
“So you have to also start thinking about the future,” she said. “What’s going to happen when we no longer need these massive data storage warehouses? What is the plan for decommissioning them?”
When it comes to dealing with the federal job cuts this year, she said about 12% of the Prince William County workforce was employed by the federal government, and this year, the county felt the impact of the cuts.
“We’ve had a number of job fairs and resource fairs,” Jefferson said. “We put up a page on the county website giving people information about starting a new business, looking for a job, going back to school, workforce development.”
WTOP’s Scott Gelman contributed to this report.
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