Vote Nov. 3: Choose how Mason County will pay for public services.
On Nov. 3, Mason County voters elect a judge/executive, 3 members of the fiscal court, a Maysville mayor, 4 city commissioners, and our state representative — the people who will decide whether projects like the proposed data center move forward, and how much of a fight they’ll have to survive to get there.
Before you vote, check what’s actually at stake and an overview of the data center discussion to date.
The Choice in Front of Us
A Fortune 100 company has proposed a data center covering roughly 2,000 acres in Mason County. Around 30 landowners have agreed to sell or lease their land for it. The county’s Fiscal Court approved the zoning changes that allow it to move forward. A group called We Are Mason County KY Inc. has spent the past several months trying to stop it in court and in the press.
That’s the choice on the table: elect officials who’ll let a project bring jobs, infrastructure investment, and new tax revenue to Mason County — or elect officials who side with a campaign that won’t say who’s funding its effort to stop landowners from selling their own property and block a business that could help pay for modern community services.
What Mason County Can’t Afford to Keep Losing
Mason County has lost tobacco, dairy, and major industrial employers over the past four decades. Since 1974, the county has lost $64 million a year in agricultural sales. Since 1990, it has lost nearly 2,500 jobs and 7.6% of its population. That decline is also a decline in the tax base that funds schools, roads, and public services. A project of this scale is one of the few realistic opportunities to reverse it.
Follow the Money Behind the Opposition
The campaign against the project includes two rounds of litigation, a sustained public relations effort, coverage well beyond Mason County, and a custom-branded touring bus. We Are Mason County KY Inc.’s corporate structure does not disclose who is paying its legal and publicity bills. Individually, the residents named in its lawsuits describe narrow, local concerns — a specific distance, a specific parcel, a specific neighbor’s decision. Ask yourself whether that matches the scale of what’s funding the campaign built around them. See: Hiding Dark Money Behind a Corporate Wall.
Where the Candidates Stand — Or Won’t Say
We asked every candidate on the ballot two direct questions… Some answered at length. Others chose not to respond at all — though in a few cases, their voting record answered for them.
See our summary of where every candidate stands at Candidate Summary, or read each response in full at Your Vote Matters.
Vote Nov. 3
This isn’t an abstract policy debate. It’s a decision about whether Mason County gets to rebuild the tax base it has spent forty years losing, or keeps protecting the status quo that caused the loss. Know where your candidates stand before you vote — and vote for the county’s future on Nov. 3.
Now is the time to prepare to exercise your right to vote: