TheAxisJournal

The cost of living in Florida is increasing day by day, making it much more difficult for families to live comfortably. A large proponent of this is the cost of utilities which, depending on the outcome of the 2026 governors race, will either increase dramatically or decline. A major issue concerning the two leading republican candidates that will affect the utilities costs will be the funding and apportionment of ai data centers. These candidates being James Fishback and Byron Donalds.

Byron Donalds has made statements of his support for building ai data centers in many parts of Florida to further his plan in making Florida the financial capital of the country. On Fox Business Byron Donalds stated how is going to attempt to “slash regulations” on building ai data centers. He also stated how we will invest in ai as governor on an X post by Byron Donalds.

Now how is this a problem? The main issue that would concern voters surrounding this proclamation on ai leads back to utility costs. According to the EESI and EthicalGeo, ai data centers can consume anywhere from 2 million to 5 million liters of water per day. To put that figure into perspective, that is about as much water as a small town consumes each day. As you can imagine this would be detrimental to the cost of utilities in the state of Florida.

There are also environmental implications surrounding this policy plan, as you may know Floridians rely on its fresh water springs every day and this increase in consumption may be disastrous to the heavily protected aquifers. Although this argument is important, it is not the center of discussion currently. Pivoting back to the policy regarding AI data centers, James Fishback has a different plan.

Mr. Fishback has expressed his goal in protecting old Florida and is seeking to ban AI data centers from being built in this great state. By preventing these AI data centers from coming to Florida there will be an active constraint on rising costs and effectively result in them decreasing because of Fishback’s coinciding policies. A major component of this is ending the overdevelopment that has ravaged our communities, as large corporations seek low costs in their operations. Although it may seem like a good thing, these companies are effectively raising the prices for heritage Floridians and those who moved here before 2020. As these companies grow, they need employees, thus many of them come from out of state seeking jobs, taking them away from those already here that need a well-paying job.

Costs continue to rise, in part because of the overdevelopment happening in Florida, but also because of the influx of foreign and domestic people that are taking the place of heritage Floridians. It is basic economics that when there is a higher demand for resources, there will also be a higher price for those resources. In a later addition I will discuss the matter of H1-B Visas as well as the large migration from northern states seeking a wonderful life in Florida, and which candidates are in favor or disprove of this ongoing trend.