Tell your AZ legislators: NO to developers writing our laws
What you need to know
There’s a bill (HB2873) moving through the Arizona legislature that will allow anyone who runs a referendum petition campaign to withdraw their petitions after they’ve submitted them. It is written by lobbyists and favored by out of state and international business interests and supporters. This bill intends to disenfranchise voters and dilute the power of voter initiatives. When voters sign a petition, we expect the people collecting them to submit the petitions in good faith.
Why this is happening
After the Town of Marana voted in January to rezone 600 acres of land for data center development, Arizonans for Responsible Development (Worker Power’s PAC) took out a petition campaign to put the issue on a referendum that would allow Marana voters to choose whether or not to let the rezoning proceed. They were successful, collecting close to 2800 signatures, most of those in the first few days. But after they submitted the petitions to the Town of Marana, they came under pressure from their political allies who supported the data center development, and tried to withdraw the petitions. The Town of Marana rejected their request.
HB2873 would require the Town of Marana to honor the request from Worker Power / Arizonans for Responsible Development to withdraw their petitions, thereby disenfranchising and violating the will of the approximately 2800 Marana voters who wished to decide for themselves about the data center rezoning. It would also apply to ALL referendum petitions in Arizona retroactive to 12/31/25 and into the future.
This is not about ideology or political party. This is about developers forcing hyperscale data centers into a community that doesn’t want it, and it’s about disenfranchising Arizona voters to do that.
What we can do
The bill has passed the Senate and will go to the House, and if it passes the House we’ll need Governor Hobbs to veto. Between now and then we need to contact our state representatives and tell them to vote no. You can find your representatives on the Arizona Legislature website. You can also follow Civic Engagement Beyond Voting’s guide to submit a request to speak (you don’t have to speak, you can just attach your statement by text). If you feel comfortable learning the system on your own, here’s the direct link to RTS. It’s always best to use your own words, and here’s a summary of what we need to tell them:
- This bill, HB2873, is about the data center rezoning in Marana. Worker Power / Arizonans for Responsible Development submitted the petitions to allow Marana voters to decide for themselves whether or not they want a data center. That organization came under political pressure from their allies and asked to withdraw the petitions, which the Town of Marana rightly rejected. This bill would force the Town of Marana to violate their citizens’ wishes and honor the request to withdraw the petition.