Methodology

Counter Math

The live taxpayer-cost counter uses the following formula:

referenceMs = Math.max(Date.now(), BUILD_TIMESTAMP)
elapsedMs   = Math.max(0, referenceMs - Date.parse(facilityOpenedAt))
total       = Math.floor(
                (oneTimeConstructionCostUSD ?? 0)
              + dailyOperatingCostUSD * (elapsedMs / 86_400_000)
              )

The counter ticks once per second (integer steps). Sub-second smoothing is intentionally omitted — real spending is stepwise and daily-aggregated; finer granularity would imply false precision.

Clock-skew guard: BUILD_TIMESTAMP is injected from SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH at build time. referenceMs = Math.max(Date.now(), BUILD_TIMESTAMP) prevents wrong-clock devices from showing $0 or implausibly-future totals. The counter is monotonic non-decreasing.

Current Inputs

Launch Gate

The live counter is only shown when the data meets a minimum evidence threshold:

• Contracted — counter shown only if inputsSourceIds contains at least one source with primarySource: true (federal contract, state appropriation bill, official budget doc, or court filing).
• Reported estimate — counter shown only if inputsSourceIds contains at least one named-outlet citation (Miami Herald, AP, Reuters, NYT, WaPo, ProPublica, Tampa Bay Times, etc.) AND the UI visibly labels the figure "reported estimate."
• Projection — not eligible for the live counter; the pending-verification banner is shown instead.

If the gate is not met, the counter section is replaced by: "Figures pending verification — site will update when primary sources confirm operating cost."

A manual kill switch (PUBLIC_COUNTER_DISABLED=true build-time env var) forces the banner regardless of gate status, for pausing the live tick within minutes if a figure is challenged post-launch.

Build Provenance

This build was generated on 2026-05-26 16:38 UTC. BUILD_TIMESTAMP_MS is derived from SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=$(git log -1 --format=%ct -- src/data/sources.json src/data/counter-inputs.json), giving a deterministic, reproducible build tied to the last data change.