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Legislative Updates 2002

To: Conservation Friends
From: Sandy Bahr, Conservation Outreach Director, Sierra Club
Date: April 26, 2002
Re: Legislative Update #15

Hi all! This week the 100th day of the session came and went, but at least the end is in sight. The sine die date being bandied about is May 10, but if the session ends then, it is very likely that there will be a special budget session sometime later. Thank you for all your calls, letters, and emails so far. It has and does make a difference.

I know you are probably sick of this bill -- I am too -- but please make a call, send a letter or an email and let your House Members know that SB1274 is not in the best interest of the Trust or its beneficiaries (primarily the public schools) and that it is premature at best. SB1274 state land; leases and improvements (Martin, Brown, Arzberger, Guenther) imposes additional roadblocks on those who would bid on grazing leases for conservation purposes. It says that if they win a lease, they have to pay the existing lessee for so-called improvements -- fences, structures, etc. -- irrespective of whether public dollars were used to construct them. It limits what can be done with the improvements once they are acquired -- so first you have to buy them and then you cannot remove them to accommodate wildlife and restoration. The bill also says the State Land Department can now consider who has the best right "and equity" to a lease. Equity is not defined but if the Land Department uses its current interpretation, then it is a clear attempt to shut out competition for these leases and give the existing lessee even more of an advantage. The bill was pulled from the consent agenda on Thursday by Representatives Cardamone and Brotherton (thank you) and will probably be heard in the House Committee of the Whole on Monday.

Please call Senators and ask them to support HB2560 air quality fund; control measures (Gullett, Huffman, Loredo, et al). It passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee 8-3-1 with an amendment that removes the section that funds county air quality monitoring. Apparently the governor is ticked off at the counties and will not sign the bill with that in there. The bill continues the new vehicle emissions in lieu fee and puts it into the air quality fund. The funds can be used 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. 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, and other measures that have been evaluated by ADEQ.

UPDATE ON A FEW BILLS:

HCR2012 State lottery; continuation (Allen, O'Halleran, Huffman et al) refers to the ballot a continuation of the Arizona State Lottery and the Commission that oversees it. The Sierra Club supports the lottery because of the important programs it funds; all of the state's Heritage Fund dollars come from the Lottery. This passed out of the House on a final read of 37-17-6 and now will be on the ballot this fall.

HCR2018 initiative and referendum; filing requirements (McClure: Huppenthal, Andersen, et al) was defeated in the Senate Government Committee 1-4-1 (Senator Gerard was not there). Please thank Senators Mitchell, Martin, Jackson, and Rios for opposing this bill. It would have further limited citizen participation in the initiative and referendum process. And on a side note, HB2381 -- another bad initiative bill -- had a strike everything amendment on a different topic, so it is also dead for this session.

HB2104 county acquisition of development rights (Huffman, Hershberger, O'Halleran, et al) allows counties to purchase or lease development rights. This is a tool Pima County would like for use in the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. This bill passed out of the Senate Government Committee 5-0-1 and is ready for the Floor.

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 bill died in the Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Committee 2-3-3.

2 HB2162 state land; planning and administration (Flake, Gleason, Guenther, et al) says leapfrog development and sprawl are fine with the land department as long as it is in the cities' or counties' plans. We are working with the State Land Department and Senator Guenther on an amendment that will address our concerns. Stay tuned on this one.

HB2380 S/E task force on property rights (McClure, Cooley, Avelar, et al) sets up a task force on property rights consisting of five senators and five representatives. It allows them to appoint an advisory committee consisting of "interested parties." The task force will look at "various activities" of county and local governments that affect property value, primarily anything intended to protect the environment. We would like to see it modified to delineate the advisory committee members, broadened to include the state and all political subdivisions, etc. As it stands, we cannot support this bill. Senator Richardson is working on a Floor Amendment to ensure some conservation representation on the advisory committee. This is scheduled for the Senate Committee of the Whole on Monday.

HB2585 air quality; regional haze program (Huffman, Allen, Gullett, et al) is on the Senate Committee of the Whole calendar for Monday. The bill allows the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to begin 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. It was amended to say that ADEQ could only proceed under the 309 provisions of the federal regulations if it is determined that mobile source emissions from areas within the state do not contribute significantly to visibility impairment in any of the Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission Class I Areas. The amendment was unnecessary and unduly limits the state's options, but we do support moving the bill forward. This is scheduled for Senate Committee of the Whole.

HB2622 fire department; electronic reporting (Landrum Taylor, Giffords, Burton Cahill, et al) is also on a Committee of the Whole calendar for Monday. It allows 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 statement and hazardous material management plans. We support this modest measure.

HB2693 clean power development (Graf, Chase, Flake, et al) establishes a renewable energy study committee to evaluate state and federal policies that hinder or encourage the use of renewable resources. This passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee 6-0-0. It awaits action by Rules.

SB1329 referendum; required signatures (Mitchell: Arzberger, Brown et al) has still not come to the Floor as it has not been withdrawn from the other committees. Perhaps it will stay that way and go silently into the night. The bill 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 a tool that citizens have to stop measures at the local level.

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 gives developers additional leverage in a process where they already have enormous power. The bill still awaits action by the House Rules Committee. I am not sure if some kind of deal has been cut on this issue, but the best deal would be for this bill to be deep-sixed.

SB1117 school buses; alternative fuels (Smith: Bennett) was amended in the House Environment Committee to include provisions that say the schools must still try to phase out the buses that pollute the most. Unfortunately, it says that they only have to convert one third of their fleet and it allows them to use low sulfur diesel with particulate traps. That should be the minimum requirement for any diesel in Arizona; the school buses should be burning on something much cleaner. The bill still awaits action by the House Rules Committee.

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. For more information on legislation go to the web page at www.azleg.state.az.us.

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