Water Before Growth

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Arizona is in a water crisis—not a future one, a present one.

We are already living under drought conditions, already facing cuts from the Colorado River, and already being told to conserve. Yet at the same time, the state continues approving massive new developments and water-intensive industries as if nothing has changed.

That contradiction ends here.

The Water Before Growth Act is built on one principle:

If we don’t have the water, we don’t approve the growth.

Arizona is being cut off first when shortages hit.
Phoenix is already managing drought conditions.
Water is getting more expensive, more limited, and more political.

And yet:

• New high-demand developments keep getting approved
• Data centers are expanding into the desert
• Infrastructure is stretched while officials promise everything is “sustainable”

It’s not sustainable. It’s denial.

Under my administration, water allocation will be reordered:

1. Households
2. Schools and hospitals
3. Essential public services
4. Agriculture and food systems
5. Everything else

If there is not enough water to safely support the people, nothing else gets approved. Period.

Data centers are among the fastest-growing industrial users of water and power in Arizona.

I will:

• Block new data center approvals in Phoenix and other water-stressed regions
• Require full water and energy disclosure for any proposal
• Enforce a zero net new potable water standard
• Ban public subsidies for these projects

If a facility cannot operate without increasing water strain, it will not be built.

For too long, projects have been approved based on projections, offsets, and accounting tricks.

That ends.

• No more approvals based on speculative future supply
• No more hiding water costs in long-term assumptions
• Mandatory real-world supply verification before permits are issued

If the water isn’t physically there, the project doesn’t move forward.

People are already being told to cut back. Government must match that seriousness.

I will implement:

• Stronger enforcement of outdoor watering restrictions
• Crackdowns on waste and system inefficiencies
• Investment in leak detection and infrastructure repair
• Incentives for reuse, recycling, and efficiency

Conservation will no longer be optional theater—it will be policy.

Arizona taxpayers should not bankroll developments that increase scarcity.

I will:

• End infrastructure subsidies for high-demand developments
• Require developers to fully internalize water costs
• Block projects that shift long-term risk onto the public

Growth must pay its own way—or it doesn’t happen.

This is not about stopping growth. It’s about surviving it.

Arizona cannot continue pretending it has infinite water in a finite desert.

We are deciding right now:

• Whether water goes to families or speculative expansion
• Whether the desert sets the rules—or developers do
• Whether we adapt early—or collapse later

I will not gamble Arizona’s future on wishful thinking.

I will not approve projects that put our water security at risk.

And I will not ask families to conserve while corporations expand unchecked.

Water comes first. Then—and only then—comes growth.