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Legislative Updates 2002

To: Conservation Friends
From: Sandy Bahr, Conservation Outreach Director, Sierra Club
Date: May 10, 2002
Re: Legislative Update #17

Hi all! It is weeks like this that make me think we should not bother with the state legislature and just focus on litigation and ballot measures. Okay, I was wrong. I actually believed what legislators said -- that there would be no Heritage Fund hit in the budget. You would think I would know better by now. Anyway, yesterday, House members, after just seeing the bill that morning, passed a budget that takes $2.5 million from the Game and Fish Heritage Fund. Because they have already decimated State Parks in many other ways, they decided to hit only the Game and Fish part of the Fund. We really appreciate Representative Giffords efforts to run a floor amendment to remove the Heritage Fund provision. Unfortunately the amendment failed pretty much along party lines. The only Republican to vote for it was Representative Poelstra. Allen, Gleason, Voss and Cardamone were not there. The rest of the Republicans voted against it and the rest of the Democrats supported it. Please thank folks (or not) accordingly.

It's not over however, so please call senators and ask them to reject stealing Heritage Fund dollars in the budget. (The bill number is HB2706.)

HB2162 state land; planning and administration (Flake, Gleason, Guenther, et al) passed out of the Senate 16-9-5 after several people folded like cheap suits and switched their votes. The bill has to go back to the House for a Final Read, so please give it one more shot and call your House Members and ask them to please vote no on HB2162. This bill helps demonstrate how truly worthless the Growing Smarter laws are and how insincere the earlier legislative efforts were. Apparently what we really need in this state is more sprawl, especially on state lands. The bill encourages and accommodates sprawl and leapfrog development on state trust lands. The "notwithstanding" language in 37-132 Section (B) 8 effectively negates the anti sprawl language in Section 37-132 (A) 4 which states the commissioner shall "Promote the infill and orderly development of state lands in areas beneficial to the trust and prevent any urban sprawl or leapfrog development on state lands."

UPDATE ON A FEW BILLS:

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. The Governor signed this bill. The provisions of this bill are also contained in HB2032, but that bill also has some rather ridiculous provisions regarding regulation of grazing by counties.

HB2380 NOW: task force on property rights (McClure, Cooley, Avelar, et al) sets up a task force on property rights consisting of four senators and four representatives. It allows them to appoint an advisory committee. The task force will look at "various activities" of the state and its political subdivisions that affect property value. Senator Richardson's Floor Amendment improved the bill. The bill passed on reconsideration 17-11-2.

HB2560 air quality fund; control measures (Gullett, Huffman, Loredo, et al) was amended on the Senate Floor to include a provision regarding the phase out of diesel buses in the schools. We are not too thrilled with this provision as it allows schools to meet the requirements by using low sulfur diesel, instead of something cleaner, and it caps the requirement at 50%. 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. This awaits Final read in the House.

HB2585 air quality; regional haze program (Huffman, Allen, Gullett, et al) still awaits a Final Read in the House. 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. That part of it was ridiculous.

HB2622 NOW: hazardous materials; planning; filing (Landrum Taylor, Giffords, Burton Cahill, et al) still awaits a Final Read in the House. 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 NOW: renewable resource study committee (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 energy resources. This bill still awaits a Final Read in the House.

SB1354 protected development rights; procedures (Guenther, Brown, Weiers, et al) passed out of the House 39-18-3 and the Senate 19-8-3. It is likely Governor Hull will sign this, as I have never known her to say no to the development interests. The bill allows phased development plans to be submitted as protected development right plans. Because those poor developers and "little guys" at Wal-Mart clearly don't have enough leverage or influence on what happens in our communities.

BLM Open Houses

This coming week there are three open houses on a proposed Bureau of Land Management Land Exchange. The exchange involves 8,919 acres of private land for all or part of approximately 16,887 acres of public land. The offered lands are located throughout the state near several national monuments and include Dixie Canyon in Bisbee. The public lands that would be traded are located in the area south of 169, east of 69, and west of I-17. I am told these lands include some pretty good pronghorn habitat. Please attend one of these open houses if you can and ask BLM about this exchange. The open houses will be held at the following locations and times:

• Monday, May 13 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the Tucson Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave.
• Tuesday May 14 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the Cordes Lakes Community Center, 16357 Cordes Lakes Dr.
• Wednesday, May 15 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the BLM Phoenix Field Office, 21605 N. 7th Ave.

Thank you for all your help!

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