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Legislative Updates 2003To: Conservation Friends From: Conservation Outreach Director, Sierra Club Date: April 18, 2003 Re: Legislative Update #14 Hi all! I think we are going to start gearing up for the "No! No! No! Just say no to the Legislature" campaign. Legislators are busily scheming to refer several bad public policy measures to the ballot. First up is SCR1012 military base preservation initiative (Blendu, Binder, Martin, et al). This passed the Senate 17-12-1 on Wednesday and now goes to the ballot. This is an issue that voters have rejected five times, including just last fall as Proposition 101. The bill allows the state land commissioner to trade away state trust land and open up more public land to development. It is unlikely to do anything to protect military bases, and in fact, will only promote more urban sprawl -- the thing that threatens the air bases in the first place. Land exchanges often result in the public getting a bad deal, as the public lands are undervalued. Please call Senators Aguirre, Allen, Brotherton, Cheuvront, Garcia, Giffords, Jackson, Sr., Mead, Miranda, Mitchell, Rios, and Soltero and thank them for their opposition. Just a week or two more calling -- they should be finished with regular bills then. THIS WEEK, PLEASE CALL SENATORS (AGAIN) AND ASK THEM TO OPPOSE HB2436. HB2436 municipal ballot measures; required signatures (Arnold: Chase, Flake, et al) authorizes the use of an alternative basis for computing the number of signatures required to file a referendum petition in a municipal election in cities and towns with 100,000 or fewer people. 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. It makes it very difficult to do a referendum. They should work on increasing voter turnout, not restricting this important right. It awaits Senate Committee of the Whole (C.O.W.) AND PLEASE ASK SENATORS TO OPPOSE HCR2022 expenditures mandated by ballot; funding (Farnsworth, Pearce, Johnson, Graf, et al). It 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. This would allow the Legislature to continue to ignore important program funding, such as the Heritage Fund. This is one of the measures that the Legislature really wants. Right now, it looks Senator Cannell is the only yes vote in the Democratic caucus. That means we need at least three Republicans to vote no on this. Please make a call or two on this important bill. It was removed from the Consent Calendar and now awaits C.O.W. action. The Lazarus bill is back. Clear Channel was back this week with a late in the game strike everything amendment to bring back the electronic billboard bill for the third time. As if it was not bad enough that this company has a virtual monopoly on these eyesores, but now they want us to be blinded by the flashing blinking electronic messages. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind seeing a star or two from my backyard. PLEASE CALL ALL THREE OF YOUR LEGISLATORS AND ASK THEM TO OPPOSE SB1138. SB1138 (S/E outdoor advertising; electronic messages) (Martin, Blendu, et al.) would overturn 33 years of sound public policy by deleting the prohibition on electronic billboard displays adopted in 1970 Arizona Highway Beautification Act. The level of brightness and shielding of the proposed electronic message displays are not limited by the bill and as such will result in more light pollution in our night skies. Here is an update on other bills: SCR1011 NOW: tax increase by initiative; vote (Jarrett) 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. Even the tobacco tax would not take effect under this scenario. It awaits a House Third Read. SCR1016 NOW: budget stabilization act (Martin, Harper, Reagan, et al) would, among other things, allow the Legislature to proportionately adjust expenditures approved by initiative or referendum in a fiscal year that estimated state revenues fail to increase above the preceding fiscal year at the rate of population change and inflation. This dooms the state to mediocrity or worse. It was retained on the House C.O.W. calendar. 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. This awaits Rules. SB1071 (NOW: land conservation fund; grazing; agriculture) (Brown) shifts $2 million dollars per year of the Growing Smarter dollars to a new fund called the "Livestock and Crop Conservation Fund." This new fund will be administered by the Department of Agriculture and will make grants to individual landowners or lessees of state or federal land. Currently the State Parks Board administers these dollars. This bill is bad for several reasons, but the two main ones are it violates the Voter Protection Act and it exempts these grants from the rule making process, so there is much less accountability in a program that clearly needs it. Last year, Representative Jake Flake's cousin got a large chunk of money as did Hal Earnhardt, the wealthy Phoenix auto dealer. This will go to conference committee some time this week. SB1122 Phoenix civic plaza; revenue sharing (now: incorporation; national parks; cities) (Burns, Blendu, Pearce, et al) allows the community of Tusayan, near Grand Canyon National Park, to incorporate. This passed the House 57-2-1 and awaits action by the governor. SB1167 environment; antiterrorism; information (Jarrett) limits availability of information about drinking water safety vulnerability as well as and energy or telecommunications infrastructure risk assessments. I am concerned about this increasing effort to limit public access to information, but this appears to be narrow enough. We need to keep an eye on these types of measures. This awaits Senate Final Read. SB1191 emissions inspections; alternative fuel vehicles (Binder) exempts alternative fuel vehicles in fleets from emissions for the first three years. Regular new vehicles are exempt for the first five years. It awaits House Rules action and may be dead because it is a Binder bill. SB1243 environment; remediation; engineering controls (Allen: Binder, Giffords) relates to a declaration of environmental use restriction (DEUR) on property that is not cleaned up to residential (the most stringent) standards. It requires that an owner of property with an engineering or institutional control provide proof of financial assurance. It establishes a civil penalty with a $250,000 cap (the industry folks got this limit in the bill). It awaits a House Third read. 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. It passed the House 60-0 and awaits final action in the Senate. SB1347 recreational corridor channelization districts (Blendu, Burns, Brotherton, et al) was amended in the House Committee of the Whole to basically leave a task force in place that can look at establishing these districts to construct and operate recreational facilities in a floodway during and after mining activities and mining reclamation. They would have to come back for legislation in order to actually establish a special taxing district. The task force now includes an environmental representative. It is pretty innocuous at this point. Representative O'Halleran deserves a big "Thank you" on this. He worked hard to get it amended to this point. HB2088 well administration and enforcement (O'Halleran, Carruthers, Gullett, et al) requires a fee for a notice of intent to drill a well. This fee will be used for monitoring and enforcement. We support it. This awaits Senate C.O.W. HB2264 WQARF; technical correction (NOW: WQARF; remediation) (Hart, Allen: Jarrett) makes primarily technical changes and requires the Department of Environmental Quality to contract with the Department of Water Resources for support on this program. It also has more language to micromanage the program so the ADEQ does not require too much of the industry folks who have created these messes. It awaits Senate C.O.W. HB2308 eminent domain (Farnsworth, Pearce Graf, et al) limits cities' ability to use eminent domain for redevelopment to only areas that are "slum or blighted." They must also keep the property for at least ten years. It awaits Senate C.O.W. action. 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. It awaits a Final Read in the House. 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 and eliminates an unnecessary notice requirement. It awaits a Senate Third Read. HB2476 agricultural water rights; protected farmland (NOW: farmland; agricultural water rights) (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 to limit groundwater use, I still wonder why this is even necessary. It passed 28-02 in the Senate. HB2478 water status report; DWR (O'Halleran, Flake, Carruthers et al) requires the Department of Water Resources to brief the committee responsible for water regarding drought, water supplies, etc. This awaits Senate C.O.W. action and will be amended to include the Yuma water bill. That measure allows for additional groundwater pumping in the Yuma basin and transfer into the Colorado River. HB2479 forest status reports (O'Halleran, Flake, Laughter, et al) requires the state forester (land commissioner) to brief legislators on forest management. This awaits Senate C.O.W. action. It was removed from the consent calendar, so there may be shenanigans. 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/. Sandy Bahr Page updated: 04/18/03 Back to 2003 Legislative Updates page Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633 |