🚨 Nassau County: “The Sky is Falling!” (Again)

Here we go again, folks.
Another memo, another doomsday scenario from Nassau County leadership — this time dressed up as an “Extraordinary Circumstance Demonstrated Need Study.”

Translation: they need to justify raising mobility fees beyond the state’s 50% cap. So they’ve dusted off the thesaurus, whipped up a few charts, and called it “extraordinary.”

See attached document for further information.

---

🧮 Let’s Crunch the Numbers

The memo breathlessly claims Nassau County has had “extraordinary population expansion and urbanization.” Sounds dramatic, doesn’t it?
Until you look at the numbers.

• Nassau County added about 3,510 people per year over the last four years.
• That’s roughly 14,000 total new residents since 2021.
• Meanwhile, Pasco County added 23,000 people in just one year.

Yet somehow, Nassau is ranked as the 8th fastest-growing county in Florida.
That’s what happens when you play with percentages instead of perspective.

Percentages make small things look big, and bureaucrats love them.
When your base population is smaller, even modest growth can look “explosive.”

---

🎬 Cue the Dramatic Narration

The memo actually claims this “extraordinary” growth has:

…altered the physical and natural environment, reshaped social and cultural dynamics, and spurred new demands on infrastructure.”

Take a breath.
That’s not the apocalypse — that’s just Florida. Counties across the state are growing, adapting, and managing it without calling every uptick an extraordinary circumstance.

---

💰 What’s Really Going On

Let’s call it what it is:
This memo is the set-up for another mobility fee increase — beyond the 50% cap allowed by state law.

To do that, the county has to “prove” an emergency.
So they pile on language about inflation, population, construction costs, and “urbanization.”

Here’s what they don’t say:

• The last mobility fee hike was just in 2021.
• Growth has been steady, not explosive.
• And the real “extraordinary need” might just be to feed a growing county bureaucracy.

---

🗓️ Monday’s Workshop: Bring Your Calculator and Attend If Possible

The first “Extraordinary Need” public workshop happens Monday, November 10th at 4:00 p.m. at the County Commission Chambers.

See NOTICE from the County: “NOTICE is hereby given that the Board of County Commissioners of Nassau County, Florida, on Monday, the 10th day of November, 2025 at 4:00 P.M., or as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard, in the Commission Chambers, located at the James S. Page Governmental Complex, 96135 Nassau Place, Yulee, Florida, 32097 will hold a workshop dedicated to the extraordinary circumstances necessitating the need to exceed the phase-in limitations set forth in Florida Statutes 163.31801 for the increase of certain East Nassau Community Planning Area Mobility Fees and the following associated proposed Ordinance: Ordinance No. 2025-063.”

They will also hold another one on December 8th at 4:00 P.M. — Try to make at least one of these workshops.

Expect:

• Slides full of percentages,
• Dire predictions,
• And the phrase “extraordinary circumstances” used about twenty times.

What you won’t see is accountability for spending or a plan to rein in ballooning consultant costs.

---

🐕‍🦺 DOGE TAKEAWAY

Don’t be fooled by fancy memos and percentage math.
The real extraordinary circumstance isn’t population growth —
it’s how fast local government grows when nobody’s watching.