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Legislative Updates 2002

"[M]y conception of liberty does not permit an individual citizen or a group of citizens to commit acts of depredation against nature in such a way as to harm their neighbors and especially to harm the future generations of Americans." —Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1937

To: Conservation Friends
From: Sandy Bahr, Conservation Outreach Director, Sierra Club
Date: April 5, 2002
Re: Legislative Update #12

Hi all! Unfortunately, the concept that we all have a greater responsibility to care for this place for future generations is a concept that is beyond the majority at 1700 West Washington. The same lack of foresight that brought us the current budget debacle, the thinking that has made us 50^th in the nation for school funding and near the top in high school dropouts, and the general lack of vision and inability to see beyond one election cycle, has also brought us another crop of anti-conservation bills including HB2638.

Please call House members today, over the weekend, and first thing Monday morning, and ask them to oppose HB2638. Please make the call instead of emailing -- they are getting swamped with email. You can make a difference on this issue. While a lot of these legislators may not listen to me, if they hear from all of you (and then some), they may begin to question the prudence of bills like this. HB2638 says that if any county adopts a conservation 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. So what if the county does something that adds value? Do they get reimbursed for that? 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 for conservation and protect the quality of life in their communities. The bill is now clearly aimed at stopping any conservation efforts at the county level and specifically at Pima County's Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. While many at the legislature and a lot of developers say they want local control, what they appear to mean, is local control is fine as long as communities are not trying to do anything meaningful or enforceable.

Also, please call House members and ask them to oppose SB1274 state land; leases and improvements (Martin, Brown, Arzberger, Guenther). This bill imposes additional roadblocks on those who would bid on grazing leases for conservation purposes -- it makes it more costly to buy "improvements," limits the time for coming up with the dollars, and limits what can be done with the improvements. The bill is premature at best. The State Land Department has drug its feet and refused to recognize that it is in the best interest of the trust to consider other applications for grazing leases -- even those that offered much more money. Now that the Supreme Court has told the Department to do so and before it has even considered one conservation grazing lease, the legislature is erecting additional roadblocks. This should be amended to say that the ranchers to do not get paid for improvements that were paid for with public dollars and to say if you pay for improvements you can do what you want with them to serve the purpose of your lease.

Bill Updates:

HCR2012 State lottery; continuation (Allen, O'Halleran, Huffman et al) refers to the ballot a continuation of the lottery. As this is the only state based funding for many wildlife and parks programs via the Heritage Fund, we strongly support its continuation. After initial defeat, this passed in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

HB2048 game and fish commission; continuation (O'Halleran, Burton Cahill, Clark, et al) continues the game and fish commission and director until 2012. This finally passed out of the Senate this week.

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 passed the Senate 30-0 and goes back to House for a Final Read.

HB2380 has a strike everything amendment attached that says that counties cannot regulate agriculture or grazing on five or more contiguous acres. Counties currently can't do that, so you might ask, "Why do we need this?" Applying logic to this process just makes my brain hurt.

To demonstrate once again that Arizona's political "leaders" will not let anything get in the way of urban sprawl, the Arizona House passed HB2162 state land; planning and administration (Flake, Gleason, Guenther, et al). It will promote more sprawl on state trust lands -- as if we need that. The bill makes numerous changes to the urban lands act. It says leapfrog development and sprawl are fine with the land department as long as it is in the cities' or counties' plans. And how is more sprawl in the best interest of the trust? That is a good question for Mike Anable, the state land commissioner.

HB2501 emissions testing; motorcycles (Cooley, Giffords, Chase, et al) has a strike everything amendment that says ADEQ must ask EPA to exempt motorcycles and collectable vehicles from the emissions testing requirements. Representative Cooley amended it on the floor to say that the Department make this request only if it determines that continuing the emissions testing of these vehicles does not provide a significant air quality benefit. With that amendment, we are neutral.

HB2560 air quality fund; control measures (Gullett, Huffman, Loredo, et al) continues the new vehicle emissions in lieu fee for an air quality fund. The funds can be used for air quality research for improving or maintaining attainment status and specifically reducing emissions of particulate matter, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, volatile organic compounds, and hazardous air pollutants. This passed out of Appropriations and Rules and should be considered next week.

Coming up in the legislature this week:

TUESDAY

House Committee on Counties and Municipalities at 9:00 a.m. in HHR5

SB1354 protected development rights; procedures (Guenther, Brown, Weiers, et al) allows cities and towns to establish an ordinance to give a protected development right without indicating it is a protected development right up front. This will give developers additional leverage in a process where they already have enormous power and will not serve the interests of the public and the public's need for information. As amended, it is certainly better, but we believe it is unnecessary and also would make it more difficult to fight projects that are phased in over time. This is brought to us by "the little guys" at Wal-Mart. WE OPPOSE IT.

House Committee on Environment at 1:15 p.m. in HHR5

SB1117 school buses; alternative fuels (Smith: Bennett) is a measure which exempts schools from meeting alternative fuel goals for school buses. WE OPPOSE IT.

WEDNESDAY

House Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture 9:00 a.m. in HHR4

SB1368 navigable stream adjudication commission; continuation (Guenther, Arzberger, Brown, et al) continues this commission until 2006. The state has been irresponsible with our streambeds and its public trust responsibility -- it has had 17 years to establish navigability and determine ownership of the streambeds. Instead of really addressing the issue, the legislature and this commission have tried repeatedly to give away these streambeds. We think they should get on with it and fear that this bill will just mean more delays.

THURSDAY

Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment 8:30 a.m. in SHR1

HB2097 environment; total maximum daily loads (Huffman; Allen) is a technical correction on a section of law that we opposed in a previous session. It just changes the timing on when the agency performs allocations of pollutant loading for an impaired water body.

HB2103 clean burning fuel: definitions (Huffman, Allen, Gullett, et al) includes low-sulfur diesel in the alternative fuels category. I am not convinced this is such a grand idea. We should be requiring low sulfur diesel as the standard fuel, not giving it a special designation.

Thanks for all your help! For more information on legislation go to the web page at www.azleg.state.az.us. To email legislators go to http://www.arizonasenate.org/members.html for the Senate and to http://www.azleg.state.az.us/members/45leg/house.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. 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.

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