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It is no secret that municipalities across the state, including the City of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, are facing funding challenges stemming from rising costs and decreasing state revenue shares. I was privileged to chair the city’s recent Prop 414 efforts to help address funding for the city’s public safety initiatives and support for the homeless. While the voters turned down a sales tax increase to fill the city’s budget needs, those needs are still there and will not go away.

I’ve recently heard a lot about Project Blue, the proposed data center in southeast ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. What may be missing from that discussion is a focus on just how economically beneficial this project could be to our region, particularly the City of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. The first phase of this project will invest $3.6 billion — a size never seen in our region. That investment is estimated to generate more tax dollars over 10 years than Prop 414 and without a sales tax increase. Project Blue’s first phase will generate over $97 million in tax revenue for the City of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ over the first 10 years. In comparison, Prop 414 estimated $80 million in revenue over 10 years. Project Blue’s potential impact on revenues is staggering. We as a community could have all of Prop 414’s proposed public safety, housing, neighborhood resiliency, and technology benefits paid for by just one project (and that’s just one phase of a proposed multi-phased project). Increased property taxes will help pay for better schools. These numbers demand that our community seriously consider the potential benefits Project Blue could bring to our city and region.

I want to be clear that I believe Project Blue’s revenue should not come at the expense of poor water stewardship or a risk to our electric grid. These are critical concerns, and there needs to be a careful examination to make sure this project is done in a responsible and sustainable way — the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ way. Pro-growth economic development and responsible, environmental and community stewardship need not be mutually exclusive. Rather, as ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ans, we should insist they work together, hand in glove. And, there’s no reason they can’t.

From the public information I have seen, Project Blue is making significant commitments and much-needed infrastructure investments to be a responsible user of both water and power. From the water side, Project Blue’s developers propose building 18 miles of reclaimed water pipeline for their cooling water, and they will replenish all water that is lost in their process (presumably from chiller evaporation). Building that much pipeline and agreeing to replenish all water are important commitments to our community, and will provide benefits to our entire region. This level of commitment is impressive and, hopefully, says a lot about the developer, namely, they understand economic growth should not come at the expense of responsible environmental and community stewardship. Period.

The developer also indicates Project Blue will help with overall power affordability and availability, which will be needed to support other projects looking to locate into the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ area. This proposed increase of infrastructure and power availability in the future, is exactly what developers should be proposing. This proposed investment deserves a detailed assessment, and we must ensure clear and enforceable commitments are in place. Each new, major project that comes to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ should help create a sustainable pathway for the next one. Doing so will ensure generations of environmentally responsible and caring community stewardship AND provide much-needed funding for a host of essential public services.

Opportunities like this are extremely rare, with many of the best projects repeatedly landing in Maricopa County rather than ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ and Southern ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. Let’s give this opportunity the careful and thorough consideration it deserves and insist the developer do things the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ way. If they can, if they will — we should all be for it. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ needs a project like this, the benefits will be profound – our police, fire and public safety can be properly funded and thousands of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ans most in need can receive the help they deserve. Let’s bring in this project — our way.