Hoping to position Florida as the next big destination for large and hyperscale data centers that power artificial intelligence, state lawmakers are weighing how much corporate secrecy is enough but not too much and how to manage the centers’ intensive demands for energy and water where they operate.
Sen. Bryan Avila, Miami-Dade Republican, is leading the charge, saying Florida can outcompete motivated states such as Georgia, Virginia and Texas to land the multibillion-dollar projects here, creating thousands of high-tech jobs, tax revenue and related economic development.
But doing so, he says, pits the public’s right to know about and manage data-center plans – including their massive impact on local water and energy resources – against developers’ preference for secrecy.
Florida has more than 120 data centers now, mostly in Miami-Dade and in Tampa, with several hypersize centers in the planning stages.
"Undoubtably it is a tough tightrope to walk,” Avila told fellow lawmakers in a public hearing Tuesday at the Capitol. He was seeking their support for a pair of bills he is sponsoring, SB 484 and SB 1118, amid pressure from the Trump Administration to build more data centers and pushback from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who wants an “Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights.” DeSantis’ bill would protect consumers from costs related to data centers and preserve local control.
News reports from Wisconsin and other states show that data-center operators such as Meta and Microsoft are closing billion-dollar deals that impose non-disclosure agreements on local authorities to keep all details secret from their constituents.
Avila says his bills aim, among other things, to prohibit the signing of long-term NDAs but also to maintain a business-friendly appearance to potential data-center operators by granting them and their plans a year-long public-records exemption.
Sen. Ralph Massullo, a Republican representing parts of Citrus, Pasco, Hernando and Sumter counties, who is vice chair of the Senate Community Affairs Committee, acknowledged Tuesday that protecting Florida communities is at odds with the desires of giant corporations that can take their pick of states for buying land and building their data centers. By forcing local authorities to keep their plans secret, the land buyers can negotiate lower prices for their land purchases and keep expected impacts on local resources under wraps. States that facilitate that secrecy may have a competitive edge over ones that do not.
“We want the public to know as much as possible, but we also want to protect those individuals [the buyers] from an anti-competitive effect that exposure gives them. It’s a delicate balance we’re asking you to try to walk,” Massullo told Avila in a public hearing on Tuesday.
“If that information, certainly, were to be public as to a specific location … the prices for that land, no doubt, would certainly go up,” Avila agreed.
Miami-Dade Sen. Jason Pizzo, who is not affiliated with a political party, said large land buyers deserve no more “protection” for their negotiations than small land buyers. Forced secrecy pits local officials against their constituents to the benefit of the developers they hope to do deals with, he said.
“This really, really puts local officials in a really tough spot, of what they are and aren’t allowed to say and talk about,” Pizzo, an attorney, said at the hearing, pledging that he would render free legal services to local officials within his Senate district if they run afoul of secrecy requirements.
“The greatest implication and consequence of this bill is that local mayors and commissioners will look like they took a kickback — will make it impossible for them to convince their constituents that they didn’t take something from a billionaire developer, data center, whatever, and keep it quiet and not share with their own neighbors that one of these things was coming,” Pizzo said. “That is an impossible position to put local officials in, and it’s one that if any of the local officials in my 20 cities happen to violate, I will represent them for free.”
Both of Avila’s bills were approved in the last two weeks in the Senate Regulated Industries Committee and the Senate Community Affairs Committee. They now head for the powerful Senate Rules Committee. They have the support of Associated Industries of Florida, which lobbies for the state’s biggest businesses and supports NDAs in economic development projects.
Senators who supported Avila’s bills, wished him luck finding a solution amid the conflicting interests of Trump, DeSantis, local authorities and data-center developers.
“If we don’t do this, others will get ahead of us,” said Sen. Jason Brodeur, a Republican serving Seminole County and part of Orange County, who cited Florida’s military, financial technology, and university interests among the sectors that would benefit if Florida lands data centers that other states want, too.
Avila’s bills also aim to build a regulatory framework that protects communities from soaring rate increases experienced in other states where data centers demanded massive quantities of energy and water. Florida already is home to 120 data centers, with one of the state’s largest planned for St. Lucie County – a $13.5 billion, 1,218-acre hyperscale data center that would be built on former citrus groves.
“I certainly want to make sure I’m protecting our local elected officials when they’re making these decisions, but at the same time, making sure that we’re not being too restrictive and having these big economic drivers … go elsewhere,” Avila said.
Laura Cassels is a veteran Florida journalist and former Capitol Bureau chief who specializes in science, the environment, and the economy. The Florida Trident is an investigative news outlet focusing on government accountability and transparency across Florida. The Trident was created and first published in 2022 by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, a non-profit organization that facilitates local investigative reporting across the state.
