Fair Economic Development

Since 2008, Worker Power has fought to ensure that economic development in Arizona’s most important cities benefits all of its residents. Much of that work has focused on use of a tax abatement called a GPLET (Government Property Lease Excise Tax) to spur luxury commercial developments that, at best, produce little discernible public benefits for regular working residents and, at worst, cause increasing gentrification that exacerbates the intensifying crises of housing affordability in these cities.

Generally, our work on fair economic development is done in Phoenix, the fifth largest city in the United States and the home of 1 in 5 Arizona residents. However, in 2022, our focus turned to the City of Tempe, the home of Arizona State University. Tempe’s City Council was considering multiple GPLET tax abatements to develop the luxury commercial complex, one of which was a $2 billion professional hockey arena and entertainment district that would have received over $650 million in tax abatements.

During 2022, Worker Power organizers mobilized hundreds of people to city council meetings, sent informational texts regarding these developments to more than 50,000 Tempe voters, collected thousands of signatures from Tempe voters in an effort to refer two development agreements to the ballot, and sued the City of Tempe in court in order to make sure these referenda moved forward.

In the end, our 2022 efforts created unprecedented results when on May 16th, 2023, a historic number of voters turned out and defeated the proposed sports and entertainment district development, despite the fact that it had been approved by an out-of-touch City Council by a vote of 7-0.

Just weeks after, Nashville, Tennessee’s Metro Council passed a $2.1 billion deal for a professional football stadium with $1.26 billion in public subsidies. As the Nevada Legislature considers a public subsidy of almost $400 million to build a new stadium for MLB’s Athletics franchise, Worker Power’s electoral victory in Tempe is one of historical impact in the battle of working people to impede such acts of corporate welfare.