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Legislative Update #1, January 12, 2002by Sandy Bahr, Conservation Outreach Director, Sierra Club To: Conservation Friends Hi all! Happy New Year! As many of you know, the Legislature started the 2002 session this week. On Monday, the Governor delivered her State of the State address and, as has often been the case, she had no real environmental priorities. On Wednesday, we delivered our "State of the Environment" Report. To view the report, please go to our web site at www.sierraclub.org/chapters/az or if you would like a hard copy, please contact me and I will send one to you. Needless to say, we see things differently than Governor Hull. There is much the state can and should do to protect Arizona's environment -- and it doesn't bust the budget either. The real challenges during this legislative session will be defending the Heritage Fund and keeping the legislature from undercutting Pima County's Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. The legislature and the governor are likely to try and sweep the Heritage Fund dollars into the general fund and Representative McClure is running a bill regarding the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. In addition to those issues, we will once more have to defend our rights to the initiative and referendum process. There are already several bills filed that would either limit initiatives or make it much more difficult to get them passed. Also, we will be trying to help pass some environmental justice legislation sponsored by Representative Loredo and some reporting legislation sponsored by Representative Landrum Taylor. We hope to see a tiny piece in the water bills that would help protect riparian areas from excessive groundwater pumping, and it looks like there may actually be some air quality legislation. The State Land Department is running several bills, but so far no sign of anything dealing with grazing leases. The agency is however trying to redefine leapfrog development so developments like Anthem would not be included in the definition. Huh? This week please call members of the Senate Government Committee and ask them to reject SCR1001. SCR1001 initiative and referendum; appropriations (Cirillo: Bennett, Daniels, et al) refers to the ballot a constitutional amendment that would prohibit initiatives that include appropriation of monies or that are immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health, or safety. I guess these legislators just sit around and think up more and more ways to try and stop people from addressing this state's problems when legislators refuse to do so. We would be unable to initiate measure like the Heritage Fund and probably a number of the health care and education measures as well. While I think the people would reject it; the legislature shouldn't waste their time with this. Members of Senate Government include: Harry Mitchell, Chairman hmitchel@azleg.state.az.us (602) 542-4124 Coming up in the legislature this week: MONDAY Senate Committee on Government at 9:00 a.m. in SHR 3 SCR1001 initiative and referendum; appropriations (Cirillo: Bennett, Daniels, et al) See above. House Committee on Education at 1:30 p.m. in HHR3 HB2061 environmental education council; continuation (Gray) continues this program through July 2012. It would be nice to see this program and the council put back into the Department of Education (currently it is under the State Land Department) and it would even better if they required that actual educators serve on the council. This is a Rusty Bowers legacy. He helped lead the effort to change the guidelines and move this program out of the Department of Education. TUESDAY House Committee on Environment at 1:30 p.m. in HHR5 HB2101 water quality appeals board; continuation (Huffman, Gullett, Guenther, et al) extends this board to July 2012. I doubt whether we will do anything with this bill. I guess the board doesn't do any harm but it certainly isn't helpful either if our experience with trying to appeal an aquifer protection permit is any example. HB2097 environment; total maximum daily loads (Huffman; Allen) is a technical correction on section of law that we opposed in a previous session. It just changes the timing on when the agency performs allocations of loading for an impaired water body. THIS IS A "WHATEVER" BILL FOR US. HB2102 waste tire program: delay repeal (Huffman, Flake, Gullett, et al) delays the repeal of the waste tire program until 2007. This is a good thing. The program helps to deal with the growing numbers of old tires. WE SUPPORT THIS. House Committee on Judiciary at 1:30 p.m. in HHR3 HCR2018 initiative and referendum; filing requirements (McClure: Huppenthal,
Andersen, et al) is starting to seem like a bad re-run. Every year we
see this measure. It would require that a certain percentage of the signatures
for an initiative measure come from five different counties. It's hard
enough to gather the required signatures without trying to make sure you HB2381 initiative and referendum; pamphlet; signatures (McClure; Anderson, Binder, et al) is like a reoccurring nightmare as well. It would require the secretary of state to produce an official title for the initiative, require a legislative council review of the measure, and would hold the campaign committee liable for the county's costs (not to exceed 50 cents per signature) for examination and verification of the signatures if more than a third of the signatures that are turned in are invalid. WE OPPOSE THIS AND THE OTHER EFFORTS TO LIMIT CITIZENS' RIGHTS TO INITIATIVE AND REFERENDA. THURSDAY Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment at 8:30 a.m. There will be another briefing on water issues, but the rest of the agenda was not available as of Friday morning. Thanks for all your help! For more information on legislation go to the web page at www.azleg.state.az.us. If you're outside the Phoenix area, you can call your legislator's office toll free at 1-800-352-8404. In the Phoenix area call (602) 542-3559 (Senate) or (602) 542-4221 (House). Correspondence goes to 1700 W. Washington, Phoenix, AZ 85007-2890. To email legislators use first initial+ 7 letters of surname@azleg.state.az.us. If you are not sure who your legislators are, please go to www.vote-smart.org or call the House or Senate information desks. Sandy Bahr Back to 2002 Legislative Updates page Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633 |