A Blue Christmas?

One last Project Blue discussion … Here comes the next vice mayor ... And Ocean's Eleven would've been better in Bisbee.

Love it, hate it, or just wish we could stop writing about it already — the Pima County Board of Supervisors is set to talk about Project Blue again this morning.

The tiny silver lining? This round of discussion about selling 290 acres of county land to the data-center developers isn’t happening behind closed doors with their attorneys.

Today’s agenda item comes from Supervisor Jennifer Allen, who put it there at the request of the county’s citizen-run Board of Health advisory committee. The advisory group recently voted to urge supervisors to hold off on the sale, arguing the county should follow its own due diligence ordinance for “heavy water and power users” before finalizing the sale.

Whether the board majority — which has backed the deal despite months of public pressure — will take that advice is anyone’s guess. And with the deadline to sell the parcel to Humphrey’s Peak LLC for $20.8 million landing basically on Christmas, time is running out.

Allen — who voted against the sale to Project Blue developers — said on the Pima Dems Podcast recently that the county has passed new ordinances to better vet future data center proposals, and it has made reforms on how the county uses non-disclosure agreements.

Frozen funds begin thawing

The county is still untangling a settlement in the City of Chicago v. Department of Homeland Security lawsuit.

If it goes through, Pima County could see as much as roughly $12 million restored — money the Trump administration froze even though it was supposed to reimburse the county for sheltering asylum seekers during the Biden years.

A federal judge ordered FEMA last month to get that funding flowing again, both here and for other groups tied to the case.

An influx of $12 million could free up funding for other county priorities, especially those hit hard by the passage of the “One big beautiful bill” signed by Trump this summer.

Several weeks ago, the supervisors tabled two six-figure requests by Supervisor Matt Heinz — to give supplemental funding to food banks and refugee resettlement groups — out of concerns about the county’s financial reserves. They instead agreed to a smaller emergency funding program that would allow agencies in the county to apply for additional funding up to $75,000.

A vape tax?

Allen wants the board to add a new item to its state legislative agenda — fixing a loophole in Arizona’s voter-approved tobacco tax that completely ignores vaping.

Back in 2006, when voters passed the “First Things First” initiative, vaping technically existed but wasn’t mainstream and definitely wasn’t on anyone’s policy radar. As a result, vape products were not part of the measure.

First Things First show revenues have been dropping since 2008, while vaping products has surged in popularity over the years.

Traditional tobacco sales have been dropping for years — bringing in $76 million less per year now than they did in 2008 — but vaping hasn’t been taxed to make up the difference.

Allen argues that closing the loophole could bring in up to $80 million a year, which would go toward childcare scholarships and other early childhood programs.

Dust vs dirt roads

An unpaved portion of Santa Rita Road, which has been identified as the most likely access route for heavy-duty truck traffic to and from the Copper World Mine, could be a new sticking point between the county and Hudbay.

While there are few concerns now as the mine is not operational, officials worry that the steady stream of trucks out of the copper mine will kick up a dangerous amount of dust – a hazard for infants, the elderly and asthmatics.

Paving would be an easy fix, but the road goes through the Santa Rita Experimental Range, which is part of the larger Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. Environmental groups oppose paving roads in general, as it leads to increased traffic.

The Save the Scenic Santa Ritas Association, which is openly opposed to Copper World, is asking the supervisors to consider an ordinance lowering the speed limit to 15 mph and restricting heavy-duty trucks to no more than 75 (one-way) trips per day.

Truck driving on Santa Rita Road. (Photo by Erick Meza, Sierra Club Borderlands)

The president and CEO of the Arizona Trucking Association, Tony Bradley, outlined in a four-page letter to the board how the proposal would likely violate federal or state laws. But he stopped short of threatening to sue.

The hopper is open at the Arizona Legislature, which means lawmakers have been introducing bills for the past two weeks.

So far, the only Tucson-area lawmaker who has pre-filed any bills is Republican Rep. Rachel Keshel.

Fun fact: No Democrats have pre-filed any bills yet, including the Democrat-heavy delegation from the Tucson area.

We’re tracking the changes Keshel and others want to make to state law with Skywolf, our legislative intelligence service.

Here are the highlights:

• HB2017: Requires the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to provide a conspicuous link on their website, by December 1, 2026, directing individuals to information in English and Spanish about public and private agencies offering support during pregnancy, childbirth, and child dependency, excluding those associated with abortion.

• HB2018: Prohibits the Department of Child Safety from entering into agreements with health care institutions or their employees or agents that involve payments in exchange for reports of child abuse or neglect.

• HB2019: Exempts individuals who are under 25 years of age and married to a person who is also under 25 years of age from Arizona’s individual income tax for that taxable year, regardless of income source or type. Requires the Arizona Department of Revenue to establish a process to verify eligibility for the exemption. Applies to tax years beginning with 2027.

• HB2020: Decreases the penalty for interference with or disruption of an educational institution if the person is under 18 years of age by making it a class 1 (highest) misdemeanor, instead of a class 6 (lowest) felony.

Keshel also co-sponsored HCR2001, which would block voters from dropping off ballots on the weekend and days leading up to an election, or show up to vote early in person that weekend. Our sister newsletter, the Arizona Agenda, broke it down for you.

They’re baaack: Border Patrol agents raided the No More Deaths camp near Arivaca and arrested three migrants, the Tucson Sentinel’s Paul Ingram reports. The Border Patrol has butted heads with the humanitarian aid group for years, and even prosecuted No More Deaths volunteers during the first Trump administration. But the November 23 raid was the first time agents had searched buildings at the camp. When agents first arrived, volunteers refused to let them enter the property without a warrant. An hour later, the agents returned and claimed they didn’t need a warrant because they were in “hot pursuit,” volunteers said.

An easy out: After two Cochise County supervisors were indicted for delaying the certification of election results in 2022, Republican Sen. John Kavanagh wants to change the law so officials won’t have to say the election results are accurate. Instead, his bill would allow local officials to “acknowledge without prejudice” the election results, per Capitol scribe Howie Fischer.

New vice mayor incoming: The Tucson City Council will hold a special meeting at the Tucson Convention Center today at 10 a.m. to swear in new Councilmembers Selina Barajas and Miranda Schubert, as well as Councilmember Kevin Dahl, who is starting his second term. The two-hour meeting will have the all-Democrat council pick a new vice mayor for 2026 and give the community a chance to say goodbye to Councilmembers Karin Uhlich and Rocque Perez. The real fun starts next week, when the new council begins to implement Mayor Regina Romero’s ”Safe City” initiative amid an estimated $40 million budget deficit.

Not so fast: Tucson-area Democratic Sen. Priya Sundareshan is urging the Arizona Corporation Commission to put the kibosh on Tucson Electric Power’s plan to provide electricity to the Project Blue developers. She said approving the application would be “premature and against the public interest” without first making sure residential ratepayers wouldn’t bear the cost. And she hinted that if the Commission doesn’t do more to protect ratepayers, the Legislature may step in.

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Not exactly big fish: Pinal County sheriff’s deputies are posting up along I-10 to catch people who aren’t in the country legally, the Republic’s Richard Ruelas reports. The way it works is deputies pull over drivers for cracked windshields or other minor violations and then check their immigration status. The sheriff says deputies are looking for child traffickers, but court records show none of the stops they’ve made since January have led to child-trafficking charges. Most of the time, the only infractions that drivers have committed are being in the country without papers and whatever minor traffic violation got them pulled over.

An art thief is on the loose in Bisbee, and the search for justice is bringing out all sorts of small-town Southern Arizona quirks.

There are plenty of colorful details in the tale told by the Herald/Review’s Lyda Longa, including the artwork itself.

The caper involves a painting on metal panels of a woman’s skull with long, black hair that disappeared from the Bisbee Brownstone in Brewery Gulch, as well as the theft of a sculpture of a woman lying on her side on top of the archway that leads from the Grassy Park to the Copper Queen Hotel.

But our favorite detail is the man who was seen on camera removing the metal panels while wearing a black wig, then saying it couldn’t have been him because he wears a cowboy hat seven days a week.