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Legislative Updates 2003"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about
things that matter." To: Conservation Friends Happy Statehood Day! Sorry this is so long, but there is a lot going on this week. If you don't have time to read it all, please do take action on these first three bills. Thanks! Please call House members and ask them to oppose the following two bills. You can find email addresses and phone numbers at http://www.azleg.state.az.us/MemberRoster.asp?Body=H or refer to the bottom of this alert. HCR2023 initiative and referendum; signature distribution (Farnsworth, Pearce, Johnson, et al) requires citizens working on an initiative or referendum to gather a certain percentage of signatures from five different counties. It requires that signatures from each of these five counties be a total of ten percent of the votes cast for governor in those counties for a statutory change, fifteen percent for a constitutional amendment, and five percent for a referendum. This will create additional hardships for grassroots organizations, citizen groups, and others without enormous resources, as it adds to the expense and time it takes to gather not only the required number of signatures, but also the correct percentages from each of five separate counties. HCR2017 initiatives filing date (Quelland, Allen J, Johnson, et al) which moves the date when signatures must be filed from four months before the election to seven months before the election. It gives folks a more limited amount of time to gather the signatures and it also gives the legislature more time to muck around with your initiative. Also, please call all senators and ask them to oppose SCR1012. Even if you think land exchanges are a good idea, you should object to this attempt to hoodwink the public. It contains not one word related to military base preservation. Senator Blendu's response to people's objections to the lack of connection between the name and the body of the bill was "We tried calling it land swaps and that didn't work." This is truly outrageous. The measure itself refers to the ballot a measure that is identical to Proposition 101, which was on the ballot last fall and was defeated by the voters. The voters have rejected land exchange ballot measures five times already, but the Arizona Legislature does not want to take "no" for an answer. SCR1012 allows the state land commissioner to trade away state land and open up more public land to development, including more than 200,000 acres of land near the Grand Canyon. Land exchanges are almost always a bad deal for the public. Federal land management agencies have had land exchange authority for the past decade. Even though they are required to do thorough reviews and ensure that the trade is in the public interest, the public often gets the bad end of the deal. Here's what's up at the legislature this week: Monday, February 17th CLEAN ELECTIONS RALLY!! Monday, February 17, 2003 at noon. On the lawn at the Arizona Legislature 1700 W. Washington House Committee on Commerce and Military Affairs at 1:30 p.m. in HHR5 HB2341 structural pest control commission (Reagan, Hershberger, Meza, et al) makes significant changes to this law including requiring licensing of applicators and allowing only licensed applicators to apply pesticides in schools. House Committee on Transportation at 1:30 p.m. in HHR3 HB2292 county transportation; planning; excise tax (Pierce, Pearce, Chase, et al) has a strike everything amendment that directs county regional planning entities to establish a transportation policy committee. What is really needed is a regional planning entity to coordinate land use and transportation planning. House Committee on the Environment at 2:00 p.m. in HHR4 HB2324 state building; energy conservation standards (Graf: Downing, Jayne, et al) requires the state to reduce energy consumption in state buildings by 10% by 2008 and 15% by 2011. It also requires the purchase of EnergyStar products unless it is shown that they are not cost effective over their lifetime. It also updates the energy conservation standards reference for state buildings. We support this bill. HB2381 safe drinking water act (Hart) requires that the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality rules regarding public drinking water systems comply with the federal safe drinking water act. It is such a basic requirement, it is kind of amazing that it was not in the law before. We support this. HB2423 underground storage tanks; amendments (Hart) makes several changes relative to the underground storage tank program. They are removing the attorney general and Arizona Department of Environmental Quality representatives from the policy commission. That looks a bit curious to me. This program has been a mess for a long time. At some point people with leaky tanks ought to have to pick up the tab for the clean up via their insurance. This UST program is a quagmire. Tuesday, February 18th House Committee on Public Institutions and Counties at 8:30 a.m. in HHR5 HB2194 community facilities districts; county authority (Huffman) allows counties to set up these districts for preservation of open space. Why not? House Committee on Government and Retirement at 9:00 a.m. in HHR3 HCR2018 ballot measure; resubmittal (Johnson, Chase, Jayne, et al) is another attempt to limit citizens' rights to the initiative process. It says that any initiative (that means only measures initiated by the people) will automatically be submitted to the voters every eight years. This process is very difficult and expensive and would be another hardship for those with limited resources. It also includes a double standard -- there is not automatic referral for legislative measures. If the legislature wants to change any of our laws or our constitution all it has to do is come up with a majority vote and refer it to the voters. We oppose this. House Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance at 1:00 p.m. in HHR3 HB2341 structural pest control commission (Reagan, Hershberger, Meza, et al) See above. Senate Committee on Government at 1:30 p.m. in SHR3 SB1218 public lighting; light standards (Giffords, Brotherton, Downing, et al) requires efficient and effective lighting for public outdoor lighting. Senate Natural Resources and Transportation at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1 SB1167 environment; antiterrorism; information (Jarrett) says that anything that can be withheld under the federal Freedom of Information Act can be withheld here. This could mean less information available to the public. SB1191 emissions inspections; alternative fuel vehicles (Binder) exempts alternative fuel vehicles in fleets from emissions for the first five years. I am waiting to hear more on the failure rate for these vehicles to see if there will be a negative air quality impact. SB1243 environment; remediation; engineering controls (Allen: Binder, Giffords) relates to restrictive covenants on property that is not cleaned up, but instead has some kind of control -- a cap over the contamination would be an example. These properties are supposed to have a restrictive covenant relative to use. The bill says the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) has to consider a change in the declaration at the request of the property owner. I don't see any issues with this, but perhaps they should talk about some enforcement relative to these controls and change of use. SB1269 antilitter advisory council (Miranda; Aguirre L, Alvarez, et al) establishes this council for looking at litter problems. I don't see anything negative about it other than the fact that Arizona Clean and Beautiful already does this. SB1282 wildlife diseases; agency orders (Cannell R, O'Halleran, Carruthers, et al) gives the Arizona Game and Fish Department the authority to take emergency actions in order to prevent or limit wildlife diseases. SB1347 recreational corridor channelization districts (Blendu, Burns, Brotherton, et al) [provides for establishing these districts that can then construct and operate recreational facilities in a floodway during and after mining activities and mining reclamation. I guess this is a way to clean up the mess that the sand and gravel operators leave -- not sure about the compatibility of recreation and mining. This is Rusty Bower's bill. SJR1002 declaring an emergency; Arizona's forests (Brown, Arzberger, Brotherton et al) is a message to congress asking for money, actions, etc to protect Arizona communities from fire and to promote thinning. Most of it is pretty innocuous, but we object to asking them to implement the Bush Healthy Forest Initiative. SM1001 Sonoran desert peace park (Giffords, Brotherton, Anderson et al) asks congress to establish a national park unit for the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and Organ Pipe National Monument. Wednesday, February 19h House Committee on Natural Resources, Ag, Water & Native American at 8:30 a.m. in HHR4 HB2115 wells; notice of intention; conditional (O'Halleran) requires that a notice of intention to drill a well be accompanied by a fee for the well administration and enforcement fund. This is a good idea. HB2476 agricultural water rights; protected farmland (O'Halleran, Mason) establishes a class of protected farmland under the groundwater management code and makes it exempt from water duty reduction if it has a conservation easement. I think this may create a big loophole in the code and considering that agriculture has done very little relative to conservation and now only has to institute best management practices, I wonder why this would be considered necessary or appropriate. HB2477 CAWCD amendments (O'Halleran, Nelson, Hanson et al) makes several changes relative to replenishment districts, imposes some new fees, etc. We need to learn more about this bill. HB2478 water status report; DWR (O'Halleran, Flake, Carruthers et al) requires the Department of Water Resources to brief the committee responsible for water after a general election (every two years) regarding drought, water supplies, etc. This is a good idea. We support it. HB2479 forest status reports (O'Halleran, Flake, Laughter, et al) requires the state forester (land commissioner) to brief legislators on forest management. This is also a good idea. HB2480 multijurisdictional water facilities districts (O'Halleran, Hershberger, Burns J, et al) provides for the establishment of multijurisdictional water facilities for constructing and operating water facilities. No position at this time. Senate Committee on Appropriations at 1:30 p.m. in SHR109 SB1130 Grand Canyon airport; cease operations (Burns) would facilitate the sale of this airport to a private entity. While eliminating the airport would be okay, this does not do that but instead could open this area up to more development. We oppose it. Thursday, February 13th House Committee on Federal Mandates and Property Rights at 8:30 a.m. in HHR5 HB2035 municipal rezoning; property owner approval (McClure) will have a strike everything amendment on it. HB2411 governmental takings; remedies (McClure, Hart, Mason et al) seeks to expand the constitutional definition of a taking. It defines a taking as something that affects all or part of private property either temporarily or permanently and that causes a reduction of at least 25 percent in the market value of the property. This measure applies to all ordinances, rules, guidance, etc. This is the latest attempt weaken local governments' ability to engage in planning and zoning that is protective of natural resources, neighborhoods, etc. It is unnecessary, could be quite costly, and will definitely result in limiting key plans like Pima County's Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. We oppose it. House Committee on Judiciary at 9:00 a.m. in HHR3 HB2511 polling places; electioneering (Gallardo; Miranda B) requires the county to get polling places that allow electioneering -- people's ability to talk to folks about what is on the ballot. We support it. Thanks! To email senators go to http://www.azleg.state.az.us/MemberRoster.asp and for house members to http://www.azleg.state.az.us/MemberRoster.asp#house. If you are not sure who your legislators are, please go to http://www.vote-smart.org/index.phtml 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. Page updated: 02/14/03 Back to 2003 Legislative Updates page Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633 |