Legislative Updates 2003

It looks like all of the anti-initiative and referendum bills are going to pass out of the House. We are going to have to work hard to kill them in the Senate.  The good news is the votes in the House were close, so there is definitely hope.  Here is a list of the bills that are moving relative to this process.  Please start contacting your senators now and let them know you oppose these measures.

HCR2009 tax increase by initiative; vote (Biggs, Johnson, Pearce, Graf, et al) requires that an initiative or referendum that would increase state revenues have a two-thirds vote on the ballot.  Considering very few measures pass with a two-thirds vote, this would effectively hamstring efforts to get additional funding for preservation, for wildlife, or for any other program. 

HCR2011 budget stabilization act  (Pearce, Farnsworth, Biggs, Pierce, et al) refers to the ballot a measure to limit the amount of state revenues that may be appropriated in a fiscal year to the amount appropriated in the previous fiscal year with adjustments for changes in population and cost of living.  It also allows the Legislature to proportionately adjust the amount of monies approved by an initiative or referendum in any fiscal year where state revenues failed to exceed revenues from the previous year.   This dooms the state to mediocrity or worse. Currently we are behind in many areas relative to funding of important programs. 

HCR2017 initiatives filing date (Quelland, Allen J, Johnson, et al) moves up the date when signatures must be filed.  See below.

HCR2018 ballot measure; resubmittal (Johnson, Chase, Jayne, et al) 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 so we will be voting on a long list of measures in 2006 and then every eight years.  That's ridiculous.  The legislature can selectively refer any measure -- all it has to do is come up with a majority vote in each house -- so this is unnecessary. 

HCR2022 expenditures mandated by ballot; funding (Farnsworth, Pearce, Johnson, Graf, et al) requires that an initiative or referendum that provides for expenditure of revenues must also provide of a new funding source.  It would effectively prohibit the public from directing the Legislature on how to spend any general fund revenues.  Initiatives and referenda are here to provide a check on the Legislature and to require that it address issues that they are ignoring.

HCR2024 voter approved expenditures; limitations (Konopnicki, Pearce, Graf) allows the Legislature to undercut voter approved measures by allowing it to proportionately reduce an appropriation for a specific purpose if the monies approved for the purpose are insufficient to cover all of the costs.  The Legislature could always say there was not enough money in the general fund and easily divert dollars for conservation, health care, and education to other purposes.

HB2436 municipal ballot measures; required signatures (Arnold: Chase, Flake, et al) 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 for those in many of our communities. In most communities there are few if any zoning referenda.  When a zoning issue is referred, it is generally because it is controversial.  It is appropriate to look closer at these controversial proposals and allow the greater community to address it. 

Here's what's up at the legislature this week:

Monday, March 17^th

House Committee on the Environment at 2:00 p.m. in HHR4

SB1167 environment; antiterrorism; information (Jarrett) limits availability of information about drinking water safety vulnerability.  This information goes to EPA.

SCR1012 military base preservation initiative (Blendu, Binder, Martin, et al) allows the state land commissioner to trade away state trust land and open up more public land to development.  The voters have rejected land exchange ballot measures five times already and most recently rejected this exact language on the ballot last fall when it appeared as Proposition 101.  Land exchanges almost always result in the public getting a bad deal. The title of the bill is misleading at best.

Tuesday, March 18^th 

Senate Natural Resources and Transportation at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1

HB2087 state land department administration (O'Halleran, Carruthers: Cannell, et al) makes technical changes.

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.

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.  Considering that agriculture has done very little relative to conservation, I wonder why this is even necessary.

HB2477 CAWCD amendments (O'Halleran, Nelson, Hanson et al) makes several changes relative to replenishment districts, imposes some new fees, etc.  I don't see any environmental concerns in the bill.

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.  Because they can already do this, I do not understand why this bill is necessary.

Wednesday, March 19^th  

Senate Committee on Judiciary at 8:30 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 twice. We oppose it.

House Committee on Natural Resources, Ag, Water & Native American at 9:00 a.m. in HHR4

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.

Senate Committee on Commerce at 9:00 a.m. in SHR3

Confirmation of Stephen Ahearn for the Residential Utility Consumer Office

HB2084 state claims to streambeds (O'Halleran, Huffman, Carruthers, et al) makes a minor change to give the land department more time to issue a notice relative to the finding of navigability.  It clarifies that an appeal can occur after the Arizona Navigable Streambed Adjudication Commission makes it determination.  We are neutral on this now.

Thursday, March 20^th 

House Committee on Federal Mandates and Property Rights in HHR5 at 9:00 a.m.

SB1167 environment; antiterrorism; information (Jarrett) See above.

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: 03/14/03

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