This spring, the Stratos Project was revealed to Utahns. As proposed, it would be the largest data center complex in the world and was attracted to Utah thanks to generous tax incentives negotiated between the state and the projects’ developers. Stratos is just one of several data center projects in the state that has received incentives to be built in our backyards.

As these data center projects have emerged, Utahns have taken to organizing against them demanding protections and organizing referendums. With this, many have begun to discuss the possibilities of a statewide ballot initiative process to tackle Utahns greatest concerns about data centers.

For over a century, Utahns have held the power, vested in them by the state constitution, to propose laws through ballot measures and put them before voters. This has given Utahns the power to address issues that have not been taken up in the legislature and keep our state government accountable to us.

Amendment B threatens to make the ballot initiative process more difficult by raising the threshold to pass any measure that affects taxation to 60%.

On the face of it, perhaps it doesn’t seem so troubling. After all, who wants to make tax hikes easy? However, the simple fact is that Utahns have never used ballot initiatives to raise taxes willy-nilly. Instead, the ballot initiative process gives residents a voice on important issues ranging from redistricting to healthcare, and one day soon, even data centers.

The last ballot measures that citizens passed that affected taxes were in 2018 when voters approved Utah’s Medicaid expansion and medicinal marijuana legalization. If this amendment were in place at that time, neither measure would have become law. In fact, no citizen-led ballot measure has received more than 60 percent of the vote in over 25 years.

Imagine, in the years to come, Utah’s legislature continuing to invite data centers into our communities like the Stratos Project was invited into Box Elder County. Each one given generous, often unprecedented tax incentives. In Stratos’s case, the Military Installation Development Authority cut the project’s energy tax rate from 6% to 0.5% and agreed to rebate 80% of the property tax revenue the project generates back to the developer. Box Elder County is projected to receive $30 million initially, when at a normal tax rate that figure would likely be closer to $360 million. While these projects enjoy the rebates, the communities they threaten are forced to pick up the slack when the bill comes due. How would we fight back?

A ballot measure that sought to strip those sweetheart deals from developers would or a citizen-led effort to raise taxes on data centers to pay their fair share to the communities they harm would require 60% of the vote. Any citizen led initiative that touched taxation would simply be more difficult, if not near impossible to pass.

Even if you support keeping taxes low, voting against Amendment B does nothing to prevent you from voting against future ballot measures that affect taxes you may disagree with. Likewise, the moment that Utahns can place a measure on your ballot to take away tax breaks from wealthy developers, you can rest assured that your vote will make a difference.

The work to get a measure on the ballot is never taken lightly. It involves the work of thousands of Utahns organizing, knocking on doors, and convincing voters. That process is rigorous and offers citizens like you many opportunities to engage directly and shape law here in our state. If it isn’t broken, why fix it?

It is simply a matter of trust. Who do you trust to shape the future of Utah? A state government that has stopped listening to the voters, or your friends, family, and community members who want to check the power of government officials?

Every election we are all faced with tough choices–candidates we may not always agree with or issues we are unfamiliar with. However, as long as we do our part to keep our government accountable to us, we can keep our democracy on track for a better future.

Vote against Amendment B and preserve our constitution just the way it is.

Tameron Williams grew up in Millard County, and is now a resident of Box Elder County. He is a Historian and a member of the Box Elder Accountability Referendum (B.E.A.R) group.