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Legislative Update #3, February 1, 2002by Sandy Bahr, Conservation Outreach Director, Sierra Club To: Conservation Friends Hi Everyone! Isn't there a country song, "How can I miss you if you won't ever leave?" This is applicable to former Senator Rusty Bowers, who has been seen repeatedly at the Capitol and at events like the Environmental Summit, since he resigned his senate seat to work for the Arizona Rock Products Association. Last week he pushed the limits of the law and good judgment by showing up to lobby against a shooting range protection bill. (Legislators are supposed to refrain from lobbying for one year after they leave the legislature.) He brought along some paperwork to indicate that he was taking two hours of unpaid leave from his job in order to lobby on behalf of himself. Did he break the law? No. Was his appearance inappropriate? You bet. With all those sand and gravel regulation bills floating around in the senate this year, it will be interesting to see if he makes any more guest appearances. I know this is repetitive, but the Heritage Fund is in big trouble. It probably is more threatened than it has ever been. While there have been some 24 previous attempts to raid it, legislators have never had a better excuse. Even some of the friendly folks are starting to waiver. Please call your senators, house members, Senate President Randall Gnant, Senator Solomon (Chair of Senate Appropriations) and House Speaker Jim Weiers, and ask them to refrain from taking any of the Heritage Fund to make up budget deficits. Tell them the Heritage Fund supports important programs for protection of habitat for Arizona's wildlife; historic preservation and preservation of archaeological sites; creation and improvement of community and state parks; and environmental education. Since its passage, thousands of school children throughout the state have benefited from "schoolyard grants" and the creation of dozens of community parks. The Heritage Fund has already suffered significantly -- revenues to the fund from the lottery are down 20%. This measure was approved by the voters and should get extra consideration, plus once the legislature starts taking the money, it will be the death knell for this fund. If they ask you where you would come up with the money, tell them to consider looking at some tax exemptions. Also, this week, please call House Members and ask them to oppose HCR2018 initiative and referendum; filing requirements (McClure: Huppenthal, Andersen, et al). This bill refers to the ballot a measure that requires 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 have all the percentages from the counties right. Ask your legislators not to help undermine this important Constitutional right. This type of measure will only help make initiatives a tool of wealthy interests. Coming up in the legislature this week: MONDAY House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development at 1:30 p.m. in HHR5 HB2188 structural pest control commission; revision (May) requires that pesticide applicators be licensed and makes other positive changes. This is a good idea. This industry is rife with problems and people who don't appear to know what they are doing. HB2189 structural pest control commission; duties (May) makes it permissive rather than mandatory that this commission keep a database with information on pretreatment projects, termite correction, etc. I am not sure why this is being changed but it does seem like such a grand idea. I am going to talk to Representative May about this. TUESDAY House Committee on Environment at 1:00 p.m. in HHR5 HB2032 solid waste management plan (Huffman) is a vehicle bill, I believe. It says the state has to adopt a solid waste management plan at least every five years. HB2033 small water systems fund (Huffman) allows this fund to accept gifts, grants and donations. It appears to be a vehicle bill as well. HB2099 clean air fund transfer; ADEQ (Huffman, Gullett, Guenther, et al) transfers this fund from the Department of Commerce to the Department of Environmental Quality. They are trying to get rid of the Clean Air Fund and establish a new fund at ADEQ -- one that might actually help clean up the air versus just give special tax deals to those who buy huge trucks and suv's. HB2317 alternative fuel safety; study committee (Loredo, Avelar, Clark, et al) establishes a committee to review safety concerns associated with alternative fuel vehicles. Maybe we need one to review safety considerations for all vehicles. The real safety issues are people using their cars like a weapon and pedestrian deaths associated with vehicles. Presentation on EPA arsenic standards. House Committee on Public Institutions and Rural Affairs at 1:30 p.m. in HHR4 HB2105 county infill incentives (Huffman, Hershberger, Valadez, et al) allows counties to establish infill areas where they can provide for infill incentives. This can help limit sprawl and encourage development in areas where the infrastructure already exists. This is a good idea. HB2462 annexation; county land; restrictions (Gullett, Kraft: Cheuvront, et al) prohibits a city or town for annexing a county park without agreement from the county. This seems like a good bill to me. WEDNESDAY House Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology @ 9:00 a.m. in HHR5 HB2400 community facilities districts (Hatch-Miller, Blendu, Laughter, et al) expands the authority of Community Facilities Districts to acquire, construct, operate or maintain generation or distribution facilities. These districts are just one more thing in our law that helps to promote and facilitate sprawl style development. This probably does not make it much worse, however. House Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture @ 9:00 a.m. in HHR4 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. HB2128 Arizona register of heritage agriculture (Gleason) establishes an Agricultural Heritage Property registry. I am not sure why this is necessary or important, but I guess it is a feel good bill with no money attached. HB2162 state land; planning and administration (Flake, Gleason, Guenther, et al) makes numerous changes to the urban lands act. It changes the definition of leapfrog development. Under the new definition, Anthem would not be considered leapfrog development. It says as long as the developer is providing financing for "those facilities and services," it's not leapfrog development. It also says that infrastructure that crosses identified open space is not leap frog development. The bill redefines urban sprawl to say that urban sprawl is not a development where it requires the extension of facilities and services across conserved areas and again if the developer is providing financing for facilities and services. In the rights-of-way language, it allows the land commissioner to grant rights-of-way to any person for a term of up to fifty years without public auction (and without any kind of public review). It eliminates the requirement for two appraisals of commercial leases if the former lessee has a vested preferred right. It requires Arizona Preserve Initiative petitioners who are petitioning based on cultural reasons to provide a cultural report describing the results of a survey performed per the Arizona Antiquities Act. It removes the public hearing requirements relative to secondary plans. It requires notice to beneficiaries about conservation reclassification. That part is fine. The Land Department has indicated some willingness to make some changes to this bill. THURSDAY Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment at 8:30 a.m. in SHR1 The agenda is not yet posted so we don't know what new bills they will consider, but here are the bills on which they will be voting: SB117 school buses; alternative fuels (Smith: Bennett) exempts schools from meeting alternative fuel goals for school buses. While the schools are asking for this due to financial constraints, continuing to run the buses on diesel contributes to our air quality problems and it is not healthy for the kids either. There are numerous studies that indicate a significantly higher cancer risk from exposure to diesel exhaust, not to mention the impact of the exposure of the children to the fine particulates in the exhaust. We don't think this is a good idea. SB1131 vapor recovery systems; approval (Bennett, Brown) basically makes the vapor recovery systems we currently have legal again. Right now, because the California Air Resources Board has changed its standards -- made them more stringent -- and our standards are tied to theirs in the law, all of our vapor recovery systems are currently illegal. God forbid that they actually think about increasing our standards. SB1158 effluent reuse; task force (Arzberger, Richardson, Gleason, et al) extends this task force and extends the deadlines for reporting.
Thanks for all your help! If you are getting this via the U.S. mail and now have an email address, please call and let me know. It helps save paper and money. 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 Page updated: 02/01/02Back to 2002 Legislative Updates page Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633 |