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Legislative Update #5, February 15, 2002by Sandy Bahr, Conservation Outreach Director, Sierra Club To: Conservation Friends Hi Everyone! This week the Legislature is threatening to stop all committee meetings and bring things to a grinding halt if the budget issues are not resolved. One can only hope. The Monday meetings have already been canceled. As you know, the House has approved a bill that takes $8 million from the Heritage Fund. We want to make sure the senate does not do the same. If you have not called your senators on this, please do so now and ask them to keep the Heritage Fund intact. This week please call House Members and ask them to oppose HB2381 initiative and referendum; pamphlet; signatures (McClure; Anderson, Binder, et al). This bill holds 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. This is another effort to limit our ability to promote issues through the initiative process. Also ask senators to oppose SB117 school buses; alternative fuels (Smith: Bennett), a measure which exempts schools from meeting alternative fuel goals for school buses. While we understand that the schools are asking for this due to financial constraints, we think it is a step backwards for air quality and the health of Arizona's children. Continuing to run the school buses on diesel fuel contributes to our air quality problems and affects the health of those who are exposed to the diesel exhaust. 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. Coming up in the legislature this week: MONDAY House Committee on Environment at 10:00 a.m. in HHR5 HB2563 water quality fund transfers; repeal (Huffman, Allen, Miranda, et al) repeals the transfer of funds from the Water Quality Assurance Revolving Fund that was passed in the special session. While we do not oppose reinstating these dollars, we cannot help but think that this is at the expense of the Heritage Fund. While they reinstate this $15 million, they take $8 million from Heritage Fund. TUESDAY House Committee on Counties and Municipalities at 7:30 a.m. in HHR5 HB2266 municipal zoning change; protest; requirements (Somers) changes the statues regarding a zoning protest and says that if a protest is filed by a single property owner who owns twenty percent or more of the areas in which the protest is allowed, then there must be a protest by at least one owner in another area. I believe this is an ongoing effort to help one person in Tucson. Kathleen Dunbar was at the legislature last year to push something similar through. HB2409 comprehensive transaction privilege tax (Camarot, Loredo, Miranda, et al) removes a long list of sales tax exemptions including for services, fees to health clubs, equipment used for remediation of contamination, automotive services, carpet cleaning, pest control, dry cleaning, equipment used for electric transmission, etc. House Committee on Ways and Means at 8:49 a.m. in HHR4 HB2106 property tax classification; conservation easement (Huffman, Hershberger, Gullett, et al) lowers the rate at which property will be taxed if it has a conservation easement. This seems like a good idea. HCR2029 tax increase by initiative; vote (Farnsworth, Pearce, Pierce, et al) refers to the ballot a measure that requires a two-thirds vote for any initiative or referendum that would provide for a net increase in state revenues. Here we go again. It is difficult to get a two-thirds vote on anything. WE OPPOSE IT. House Committee on Retirement and Government Operations at 9:00 a.m. in HHR3 HB2487 EMINENT DOMAIN (Farnsworth, Pearce, Anderson, et al) changes the conditions under which cities can use eminent domain in redevelopment areas -- limits it to elimination of slum or blight. House Committee on Environment at 1:00 p.m. in HHR5 HB2125 chemical fires response coordination (Landrum Taylor, Lopez L, Chase, et al) requires cities with a population of 75,000 or more persons to work with the state fire marshal to establish a permitting process that identifies and tracks commercial and industrial buildings that use or have hazardous materials on site. WE SUPPORT IT. HB2127 Hazardous chemical; right to know (Landrum Taylor, Lopez L, Chase, et al) provides for electronic filing of emergency and hazardous chemical inventory forms. WE SUPPORT IT. HB2130 hazardous waste facility; notice hearing (Gullett, Huffman, O'Halleran) is a vehicle bill, I believe. HB2315 waste permits; disparate impacts (Loredo, Avelar, Lugo, et al) requires the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to establish rules to examine whether permitting hazardous waste and solid waste facilities has a disparate impact on minority communities. While it is clear that ADEQ should already be considering whether these facilities are affecting minority communities disproportionately, it is equally clear that it is not. Nearly all of Arizona's hazardous waste facilities are located in minority and low-income neighborhoods. The bill also requires the director to deny approval of the permit if she/he determines that it would have a disparate impact. WE SUPPORT IT. HB2545 environment; cumulative risk (Loredo, Lugo, Clark, et al) requires the ADEQ to determine the cumulative risk and effect of a proposed facility on the public health and welfare and the environment when combined with existing uses within the same zip code area as that proposed facility. It includes air quality permits, hazardous waste and solid waste permits, as well as water quality permits. WE SUPPORT THIS. HB2560 air quality fund; control measures (Gullett, Huffman, Loredo, et al) puts the new vehicle emissions fee into the air quality fund and requires that these dollars only be used for the specific purposes outlined in the bill and specifically for Area A (Phoenix area) and Area B (Tucson area). The funds can be used for air quality research for improving or maintaining attainment status and specifically reducing emissions of particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and volatile organic compounds. The measures that are included in the bill include a voluntary lawn and garden equipment emissions reduction program, a voluntary vehicle repair and retrofit program, the diesel vehicle low emission incentive grant program, voluntary accelerated purchase of tier 2 and 3 equipment, local grants for particulate efficient street sweepers, and other measures that have been evaluated by ADEQ. It also allows incentive grants for cleaner burning diesel vehicles. This overall seems like a positive bill to me. WE SUPPORT IT. HB2585 air quality; regional haze program (Huffman, Allen, Gullett, et al) allows the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to participate in a regional haze program designed to identify and reduce pollution around Class I areas including places like the Grand Canyon National Park. The program will include monitoring, reduction of stationary and mobile emission sources, etc. This appears to be moving in the right direction. HB2622 fire department; electronic reporting (Landrum Taylor, Giffords, Burton Cahill, et al) requires facilities that are subject to the emergency response regulations in cities with 75,000 or more persons to file an electronic format hazardous material inventory state and hazardous material management plans. This seems like a fine idea. House Committee on Public Institutions and Rural Affairs at 1:30 p.m. in HHR4 HB2378 parks and recreation district (McClure, Somers, Binder, et al) allows the counties to establish special parks and recreation districts in unincorporated areas if there is a petition from ten percent of the qualified electors in the county. WE SUPPORT THIS. HB2594 water exchanges (Gleason) expands the conditions under which water exchanges can occur. Senate Committee on Judiciary at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1 SB1453 public hazards; confidentiality (Bundgaard) prohibits court orders which limit access to information related to lawsuits involving public hazards -- defective products, environment hazard and fraudulent practices. These confidentiality agreements have been used to hide important information from the public related to defective products and hazardous materials -- spills, releases, bad tires, etc. This is a basic public right-to-know and human health protection issue. The list of opponents is a who's who list of the Chamber of Commerce. WE SUPPORT THE BILL. WEDNESDAY Senate Committee on Commerce at 8:30 a.m. in SHR1 SB1339 state agencies; administrative procedures (Burns, Bennett, Arzberger, et al) is part of another regulatory reform package. Among other things, it says that agency rules become effective after ninety days unless certain conditions are met that would justify the rules becoming effective immediately. One of those reasons is that it is a less stringent rule. I think this is simply ridiculous. Haven't the big business interests squeezed enough out of this state yet? It also looks like it eliminates the requirement for a concise explanatory statement. WE OPPOSE THIS. House Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture @ 9:00 a.m. in HHR4 HB2582 governor's water management commission amendments (O'Halleran, Carruthers, Hatch-Miller, et al) is an enormous bill that is intended to implement the recommendations of the commission. It provides some recognition and protection for riparian areas, so we are generally supportive of the bill. HB2162 state land; planning and administration (Flake, Gleason, Guenther, et al) makes numerous changes to the urban lands act. It will be amended to say leapfrog development and sprawl are fine with the land department as long as it is in the cities' or counties' plans. WE STILL OPPOSE THIS BILL. THURSDAY House Committee on Military, Veteran Affairs and Aviation at 9:00 a.m. in HHR5 HCR2036 initiative; appropriations; return to ballot (Marsh, Johnson; Blendu) is another attempt to limit citizens' rights to the initiative and referendum process. It says that any measure that allocates from the state general fund has to be submitted again to the voters every ten years. This process is so painful and difficult that I can't imagine having to resubmit measures every ten years. The legislature can re-refer a measure AT ANY TIME, if it has the votes. WE OPPOSE THIS. Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment at 8:30 a.m. in SHR1 SB1338 underground storage tanks (Richardson, Gunether, et al) will be amended to reinstate language regarding protection of public health and welfare and the environment. Once that is added, we are fine with the bill. SB1344 governor's water management commission amendments (Guenther, Hamilton, Hellon, et al) is the big bill that will promote the Governor's Water Commission recommendations. For such a large bill -- a whopping 147 pages -- it does relatively little. That being said, we are supportive of the provisions which recognize the need to protect riparian areas. It will have a very limited impact, but is a step in the right direction. SB1353 Arizona agricultural heritage act (Guenther, Arzberger, O'Halleran, et al) establishes the Arizona Agricultural Heritage Commission and the Arizona agricultural heritage fund within the Department of Agriculture, for the purpose of purchasing agricultural easements. This is the Nature Conservancy's bill. SB1355 governor's water commission; withdrawal assessments (Guenther, O'Halleran, Arzberger) establishes additional fees for groundwater pumping -- a safe yield fee. We are supportive of that. SB1368 navigable stream adjudication commission; continuation (Guenther, Arzberger, Brown, et al) continues this commission until 2006. The state is being very irresponsible with our streambeds and its public trust responsibility. It has been 17 years since the attorney general and the courts told the state that it had a responsibility for the streambeds. Since then, the legislature, this commission, etc. has done nothing to demonstrate any responsibility for these streambeds. Meanwhile tons of sand and gravel are extracted and the streambeds are being decimated. WE OPPOSE THIS BILL. 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 go to http://www.arizonasenate.org/members.html for the senate and to http://www.426-hemi.com/cars/azhouse.htm for the house. 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: 02/15/02Back to 2002 Legislative Updates page Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633 |