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Legislative Updates 2002

by Sandy Bahr, Conservation Outreach Director, Sierra Club

To: Conservation Friends
From: Sandy Bahr, Conservation Outreach Director, Sierra Club
Date: March 1, 2002
Re: Legislative Update #7

Hi Everyone! The Regular Session at the legislature is still on hold -- if only it could last. The House has canceled all committee hearings for next week; the Senate committees are all pending adjournment of the special session. I guess we're waiting to see who blinks first. Let's hope it is the House members -- their budget steals Heritage Fund dollars and gives state employees nada. This week, please call senators and thank them for eliminating the House's Heritage Fund raid from HB2002 (Special Session bill).

While legislators have time on their hands, there is opportunity for them to consider whether or not they really want some of these bills. Please call House Members and Senators and ask them to oppose all measures that limit the public's ability to participate in the initiative and referendum process at both the state and local level. These include the following bills:

HCR2018 initiative and referendum; filing requirements (McClure: Huppenthal, Andersen, et al) requires the committee working on the initiative to gather a certain percentage of signatures from three different counties. At first, the requirement would have been five separate counties, but it was amended to three. This still would create hardships for grassroots organizations, adding to the expense and time it takes to gather not only the required number of signatures, but also the correct percentages from each of three separate counties. This may be an unconstitutional limit on the exercise of initiative and referendum rights. This passed the House 34-25-1.

HB2381 initiative and referendum; pamphlet; signatures (McClure; Anderson, Binder, et al) makes the committees working on the initiative liable for all the costs of signature review if the rate of invalid signatures is 1/3 or more. The bill also requires the Legislative Council to review the initiative or referenda and comment before the election occurs. This bill adds obstacles and expenses to an already difficult and arduous process and may actually be an unconstitutional limit on the exercise of initiative and referendum rights. HB 2381 is awaiting action by the House Committee of the Whole.

HCR2036 initiative; appropriations; return to ballot (Marsh, Johnson; Blendu) says that any measure that allocates dollars from the state general fund has to be submitted again to the voters every ten years. This process is so painful and difficult that submitting initiatives every ten years would indeed be a hardship. The legislature can re-refer a measure AT ANY TIME, if it has the votes, so this measure is totally unnecessary. This is assigned to Military, Veteran Affairs, and Aviation -- an interesting committee choice.

SB1329 referendum; required signatures (Mitchell: Arzberger, Brown et al) authorizes the use of an alternative basis for computing the number of necessary signatures required to file a referendum petition in a municipal election. It would effectively allow cities and towns to change the basis for calculating the number of signatures from 10% of the people who voted at the last election to 10% of ALL registered voters in the city or town. These numbers would be overwhelming. It takes away one more tool that citizens' have to stop measures at the local level. This is assigned to the Government Committee.

If you have not called already, please ask senators to oppose SB1117 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.

HB2638, the anti-planning bill, has been assigned to the House Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee. This is interesting because normally a bill of this nature would go to Counties and Municipalities, but I believe the Speaker is trying to help Representative McClure jam this through. Please call Representatives Linda Binder, Carmine Cardamone, Jim Carruthers, Cheryl Chase, Mark Clark, Jake Flake, Mark Maiorana, Gary Pierce, Tom O'Halleran, and Mike Gleason, and ask them to oppose this bill. The bill says that if any county adopts a planning designation in its comprehensive land use plan or a zoning regulation that causes a reduction in use or value of property of ten percent or more then that is considered a taking and the property owner is entitled to compensation. If HB2638 passes, it will result in a lot more litigation and will be costly to counties (county taxpayers) that are trying to plan and zone to protect the quality of life in their communities. A plan designation does not rezone a person’s property and does not reduce the value of a person’s property. Individuals do not have a right to speculate at taxpayer expense about a possible rezoning of their property in the future. The bill is aimed at Pima County, which actually has the audacity to try and do some planning via the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan.

I want to thank those of you who attended Environmental Legislative Day. We had about seventy people attend including Representatives Allen and Loredo. Unfortunately, a lot of legislators were out of town because of the budget impasse. Next year we hope to increase the number of participants and increase our visibility. Thanks again.

Coming up in the legislature this week:

Who knows? It really is anybody's guess, but it does appear that the House is not going to have committee hearings and hearings in the Senate are iffy.

For those of you who wonder what the Game and Fish Commission is up to, they have just voted to move forward with a proposal to allow night hunting of predators. In addition to being ecologically indefensible, there are serious public safety issues with this proposal. If you are concerned about the measure, please contact Game and Fish at rulemaking@gf.state.az.us or write to Mr. Michael Golightly, Chairman, Arizona Game and Fish Commission, 2221 W. Greenway Road, Phoenix, AZ 85023-4399. The Commission is likely to make a decision on this later this year.

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). 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. Correspondence goes to 1700 W. Washington, Phoenix, AZ 85007-2890.

Back to 2002 Legislative Updates page

Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633