Prince George’s County sees tax revenue from large data centers as a huge economic boon at a time when its budget is severely strained, but the Maryland county is also putting further development of them on pause anyway.

County Executive Aisha Braveboy issued an order pausing the issuance of any permits for data center construction until after a task force finishes making recommendations to help guide their future development. At the same time, the county council began moving toward legislating its own moratorium, as well.

Council member Wala Blegay, who is on the task force, said the move has been in the works for months — before concern about the building of a data center at the old Landover Mall site blew up.

“The concern that we had is that, what if somebody starts putting something

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