Data centers pay their own way.

They do not belong in neighborhoods.

Data centers use a lot of power. In a time of cuts to the Colorado River, more infrastructure can look backwards. Families are not wrong to feel that.

So the standard is simple. Large users pay for the water and the power they use. No quiet drilling. No shift onto the family electric bill. And no data centers in neighborhoods. Industrial load belongs on industrial land, with a contract the public can see, not next to homes in Casas Adobes, Oro Valley, or Marana.

Those questions come first. Whose well? Whose rate? Who pays if the project is built and the contract is not? A House member who skips them is not being serious.

Data centers are still part of the country’s infrastructure. Banks, hospitals, emergency systems, and the grid already run on them. That is why Republicans and Democrats have treated them as something Arizona will host, including Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, who refused a statewide building ban while agreeing to pause new tax breaks. Growth that ignores a water cut is reckless. A ban that ignores a hospital server is not a plan either. The fight is the terms, and the terms have to protect the people who already live here.

Water conservation is necessary but not enough. Arizona is taking a deep cut from the Colorado River. Using less will not close that gap, keep farms producing, and leave a growing state with a future. We need new supply we can control. WIFA should finish the Sea of Cortez desalination review with the Governor, in public (cost, brine, and the legal exchange) and fund what survives the numbers. The same rule applies at home: reuse, recharge, and the Yuma Desalting Plant. New industrial demand does not jump the line ahead of families and farms.

Energy is the other half of the same test. These facilities draw enormous, steady load. That can help pay for the grid if the contract is written correctly. It will raise household bills if it is not. Large users should pay for the generation and transmission built to serve them: minimum bills, collateral, no special discount, no stranded plant left on TEP customers. Reliability still comes first: firm power in July, then nuclear over time, solar and storage where they actually cut cost and peak risk. Do not retire what we have before the replacement is on the line.

Cities and counties can still refuse a bad site. Neighborhoods are a bad site.