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Legislative Updates 2003To: Conservation Friends From: Conservation Outreach Director, Sierra Club Date: March 7, 2003 Re: Legislative Update #8 Hi all! Thanks for calling, writing and emailing this past week. It is an uphill battle, but you are making a difference. A number of bad bills are moving through the process and appeared on agendas at the last minute this past week, including several anti-initiative measures that are on today's (Friday's) Appropriations Committee agenda. I will give more details on this next week. This week, please call your House members and ask them to oppose HB2411. The vote on this bill could be close. As always, calls are best and they do make a difference. See below for more information. To contact legislators go to http://www.azleg.state.az.us/MemberRoster.asp. HB 2411 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 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. It provides for certain exceptions. We oppose this legislation for several reasons: It is unnecessary. The United States and Arizona Constitutions as interpreted by the courts provide strong protection for private property rights. (2) The measure will be costly to taxpayers in our cities, towns, and counties, especially those who are trying to implement meaningful planning for open space, transportation, and other quality of life issues. What will this do to the budgets of communities that are already struggling to make ends meet? (3) The definition of a taking in this bill is contrary to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision (Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council, Inc. v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency), in which the court ruled that the property owners around Lake Tahoe were not entitled to compensation for loss in property value that resulted from a temporary building moratorium intended to protect the water quality of the lake. The court affirmed communities right to regulate land use and to implement temporary moratoria to protect something vital to the community. (4) It only looks at one side of the issue relative to government regulation of property. Government actions often give value to private property via infrastructure and other services. This bill only looks at actions that potentially devalue property. It also does not account for the impact on surrounding neighbors, but only addresses the property subject to the government action. If my property is devalued by the building or expansion of a freeway nearby, I am not entitled to compensation according to this bill. This is a double standard. (5) The Arizona Legislature has attempted to win passage of takings measures in the past; legislators have rejected some of these measures and voters rejected the one that was referred to the ballot. In 1992, the legislature passed a takings measure that was referred to the ballot and in 1994 the voters overwhelmingly rejected it (60% to 40%). This measure required a takings impact assessment for many state actions including those that would protect health, safety and welfare. If you have not contacted the governor or your legislators on the proposed Heritage Fund raid, please do so now. Don't let this be the first successful of 28 attempts to raid the Heritage Fund. Please contact Governor Napolitano and ask her not to raid the Heritage Fund. Go to http://www.governor.state.az.us/post/feedback.htm or call 602-542-4331 and toll free 1-800-253-0883. You can fax her at 602-542-1381. Any communications should be addressed to: The Honorable Janet Napolitano, Governor of Arizona, 1700 W. Washington St., 9th Floor, Phoenix, AZ 85007. Please also contact your legislators and ask them to oppose this raid on Heritage Fund dollars. Finally, please call House members and ask them to oppose HCR2018 ballot measure; resubmittal (Johnson, Chase, Jayne, et al). It attempts to limit citizens' rights to the initiative process. The bill says that any initiative (that means only measures initiated and referred by the people, not those referred by legislators) will automatically be submitted to the voters every eight years. It is retroactive to 1990 and would place any initiative that passed from 1990 to 1998 on the 2006 ballot. This is ridiculous. Do we really need to vote to ban cockfighting every eight years? It is clearly a backdoor attempt to get rid of measures that the legislature would prefer not to have to address directly. Any time legislators can round up 16 and 31 votes, they can refer a measure to the ballot. It puts initiatives in the hands of the wealthy as big money interests are the only ones that will be able to afford the frequent campaigns. It represents a double standard -- there is no automatic referral for legislative measures. Here's what's up at the legislature this week: Tuesday, March 11th Senate Natural Resources and Transportation at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1 HB2292 county transportation' planning'; excites tax (now: transportation policy committee; regional planning) (Pierce, Pearce, Chase, et al) requires that the Maricopa Association of Governments establish a Transportation Policy Committee to adopt a Regional Transportation Plan for Maricopa County. This is to help facilitate a vote on continuing the transportation tax. While we agree that regional planning for transportation is a good idea, this bill clearly does not get us there. We should have a coordinated land use and transportation plan and some real form of regional governance to make this or anything else work effectively. There is some lip service for transit. Senate Committee on Government at 1:30 p.m. in SHR3 HB2210 municipal annexation; county parks (Gullett, Nelson, Hanson, et al) limits a city or town's ability to annex a county park or other public land unless the supervisors agree to it. We support this measure. The cities ought not be able to cherry pick the county park systems. Wednesday, March 12th Senate Committee on Judiciary at 9:00 a.m. in SHR1 HCR2017 initiatives filing date (Quelland, Allen J, Johnson, et al) 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. This was held last week. We oppose it. House Committee on Natural Resources, Ag, Water & Native American at 9:00 a.m. in HHR4 A briefing on Native American Water Settlements. 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 http://www.azleg.state.az.us/. Page updated: 03/07/03 Back to 2003 Legislative Updates page Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633 |