Arizona / Jun 12 budget / 3-yr tax-incentive pause / $57M / third moratorium model

Plain-English framing. Arizona has used a Computer Data Center sales-tax exemption since 2013 to attract hyperscaler builds in the Phoenix metro and Pinal/Maricopa counties; the program currently exempts qualifying equipment purchases from state sales tax. Governor Hobbs (D) asked the legislature to repeal the program outright; the bipartisan budget deal compromised on a 3-year pause for NEW applicants while preserving existing certifications. Why this is a third moratorium model. Build moratoriums (Hood County rescinded; NY S10642 pending) freeze permits. Environmental-review challenges (Pine Island MN) freeze specific projects. The Arizona model freezes the incentive that triggers the build economics in the first place — without prohibiting builds. It's substantively softer than the other two, but politically more durable because the underlying state action (declining to award a tax benefit) is unambiguously within the state's authority. There is no Dillon's Rule attack and no environmental-review challenge available. The revenue math. $57M projected revenue preservation over 3 years implies the state was forgoing ~$19M/year in sales-tax revenue under the existing program — which at typical Arizona sales-tax effective rates of 8-9% implies the program was exempting ~$210-240M of qualifying purchases per year. That is moderate-scale (~2-3 hyperscale builds worth of equipment) and signals the program was already winding toward declining marginal political value.

Primary source · Arizona Capitol Times / CALO News / BGOV ↗