Legislative Updates 2004

Hi all! Thanks for all your calls, letters, and emails this past week. You helped defeat HCR2016 tax increase by initiative; vote (Biggs, C. Gray, Quelland) on the House Floor, 22-35-3. That bill refers to the ballot a measure that, if passed, requires an initiative or referendum that increases state revenues to have a two-thirds vote on the ballot. We will keep an eye on it as these bills usually re-emerge in some form. Also, SB1304 subdivision sales; notice to commissioner (Leff) was held. It requires a statement to the real estate commissioner regarding uses and conditions located within 600 feet of the property that could adversely affect the health, safety and welfare of the purchaser. They should have to disclose any issue, not just those within 600 feet.

HB2549 healthy forest pilot program (Chase, Arnold, Carruthers, et al) passed out of Natural Resources in the House this week without opposition from committee members. It was pretty clear from the discussion and questions that many on the committee had not looked at even the most basic information on forest issues and when it came to scientific information, they were just blowing smoke. Even the most basic fact that fire is natural and has an important role in the forests seemed to be lost on many committee members. The bill sponsor has indicated that she is willing to meet and work on amendments, but so far she has not returned any calls.

This week, please call House members and ask them to oppose HB2538 military base preservation; consideration (McClure, L. Gray, Hubbs, et al). It says that a county or a city cannot combine military base preservation with other matters in a referendum. Why does the legislature want to interfere with a local process and micromanage a bond election? Pima County has developed a comprehensive plan via the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. It has gone through a vigorous public process. To help implement the plan, the Pima County Board of Supervisors established a Citizens Bond Advisory Committee that got input from many surrounding communities. After meeting for months, the Citizen Committee then made recommendations to the Board of Supervisors. The Board of Supervisors then took action and referred to the ballot a bond package, a regional comprehensive package. Protecting open-space near the Davis-Monthan air base is part of that package. What aspect will they pick out of the package next?

Here is what is coming up this week:

Monday, February 23rd

House Committee on Environment at 1:30 pm in HHR 4

HB2207 air quality; fuel formulations (Huffman, Allen: Gullett, et al) changes one of the options for fuel formulation from CARB phase 2 to CARB phase 3. This is fine, but ADEQ needs the dollars to implement this.

HB2484 will have a strike everything amendment on aquifer protection program; amendments ­ always worth watching as the industry people, especially the mines, would just love to gut this program.

HB2644 underground storage tanks program (Hart, Pearce; J. Allen, et al) includes “volunteers” in the definition of those who can access these clean up dollars. A volunteer is someone who owns the property, but is neither the owner nor the operator of the UST.

HB2651 municipal tank closures; counties (Flake, Chase) makes counties eligible for the municipal tank closure program. That seems like a fine idea.

HB2677 underground storage tanks; insurance; repeal (Farnsworth, Allen: Biggs) makes the State Assurance Fund (SAF) the primary fund for covering leak clean ups. Currently the law says that private insurance is primary. This program has become a giant welfare program — it was intended to clean up historical contamination and provide assistance to those who did not have the means to do so. While we have concerns about making the SAF primary, the bill actually has several provisions we support, including the phase out of the SAF ­ the excise tax on fuel should continue, however, to keep funding inspections, monitoring, and other preventative measures.

HB2705 renewable fuel incentives (Boone) contains a MTBE ban for Maricopa County, requires conversion to biodiesel and provides a schedule, and provides a property tax break for producing biodiesel.

House Committee on Commerce and Military Affairs at 1:30 pm in HHR5

HB2119 structural pest control commission (Reagan) replaces certified applicator with “licensed”, requires them to retain fungi reports for five years, among other things. It requires government to meet the conditions for private entities.

HB2504 structural pests; treatments; payments; forms (Reagan; Hanson) requires filing of a form for termite treatments.

HB2605 military airports; land use planning (Hanson, A. Aguirre, Bradley et al) requires the adoption of noise contours near military airports and authorizes growth management in these areas. It also requires notification.

Tuesday, February 24^th

House Committee on Government and Retirement at 9:00 a.m. in HHR3

HB2009 will have a strike everything on regulatory reform; amendments

HB2615 fuel supplies; reporting (Huppenthal, Huffman, Nelson, et al) will have a strike everything amendment.

HB2703 state buildings; energy savings (Boone, Graf) requires the Department of Administration to use the energy conservation fund to implement additional energy conservation measures in state buildings. This seems like a good idea.

House Committee on Public Institutions and Counties at 9:00 a.m. in HHR5

HB2664 downzoning; owner compensation (Pearce, Johnson, Blendu, et al) says that any rezoning that restricts the use or reduces the value of land is a taking and therefore requires compensation. This is contrary to more than 100 years of case law. It would make it impossible to do anything to zone for the public interest or the greater good.

House Committee on Appropriations at 1:00 p.m. in SHR

HCR2011 voter approved expenditures; limitation (Konopnicki, Barnes, Gray C, Hubbs, et al) refers to the ballot a measure that undercuts voter approved ballot measures by allowing the legislature 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 is likely to always say there is not enough money and easily divert dollars.

Senate Natural Resources and Transportation Committee at 1:30 pm in SHR1

SB1084 solid waste program amendments (Allen, Blendu, Huffman) includes in the definition of inert material soil that contains no contaminants above the residential remediation levels, and requires solid waste treatment facilities and solid waste incinerators to develop solid waste facility plans, among other things.

SB1085 solid waste fees (Allen, Blendu Huffman) allows the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to adopt the annual fee for these facilities by rule. This will have an amendment to swipe part of the recycling money. We oppose that.

Senate Committee on Government at 1:30 pm in SHR3

SB1269 public records; index (Burns, Bee, Johnson et al) requires that those responsible for public records provide an index of records that have been withheld from the requesting person stating the reason each record being withheld. This seems like a step in the right direction.

SB1275 business entity information; confidentiality (Tibshraeny, Huppenthal) establishes procedures for the government receiving confidential information, but not disclosing it. This needs to be looked at carefully.

SB1396 municipal zoning; protest requirements (Bee: Hellon) changes the protest requirements to make it more difficult. I believe this is aimed at a single case in Tucson. We have seen this bill before.

Wednesday, February 25^th

House Committee on Education at 8:30 am in HHR3

HB2272 school buildings; air quality (Gullett, Hershberger, Landrum Taylor et al) makes several changes relating to the responsibilities of the school facilities board and school district governing boards to ensure that Arizona school children are provided with a positive learning environment and that their exposure to pollutants and other harmful emissions is minimized. The intent of the legislation is to improve and protect indoor air quality in Arizona’s schools. According to research performed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indoor levels of certain pollutants may be 2-5 times, and sometimes more than 100 times, higher than outdoor levels.

House Committee on Natural Resources, Agriculture, Water and Native American Affairs at 8:30 am in HHR4

HB2388 will have a strike everything on Arizona forest health and safety. Who knows what they have in mind with this, but it can’t be good.

House Committee on Utilities and Municipalities at 9:00 am in HHR5

HB2164 municipal annexation; petitions (Huffman, Hershberger; Downing, et al) changes it to apply to only real property - -deletes personal.

HB2687 conservation easements; procedures (Hubbs, Mason) prohibits cities, towns and counties from affecting conservation easements via their zoning procedures or ordinances.

Senate Committee on Judiciary at 9:00 am in SHR1

SB1081 animal and ecological terrorism (Verschoor, Allen, Harper, et al) will have a strike everything amendment. The current bill contains vague language and penalties for violent crimes that are already covered under existing laws. It appears to be intended to suppress legitimate advocacy work rather than afford any greater protection to the public or a deterrent. It defines an "animal or ecological terrorist organization" in a manner that could be used to prosecute mainstream environmental groups engaged in nonviolent advocacy work, including lawful boycotts, permitted marches or demonstrations, and shareholders' motions raised at corporate meetings. The Sierra Club has long condemned violence, including that done in the name of protecting the environment.

SB1347 absolute immunity; wildlife damage (Hellon, Harper; Anderson, et al) provides immunity to the state relative to wildlife actions. This seems like a good idea. Wildlife is a public trust and we should not be paying ranchers for elk eating the grass.

Thursday, February 26^th

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

HB2553 real estate; subdivisions; unsubdivided lands (Jayne, Hubbs, L. Aguirre, et al) creates additional exceptions to the subdivision definition. Why?

HB2679 county land divisions; definition (Farnsworth, Jayne, Johnson, et al) defines “acting in concert” in a way that will promote more of it. This is what people do to avoid subdivision law in Arizona. I guess these laws are just not loose enough for the development interests yet.

Thanks again for all you do! 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) 926-3559 (Senate) or (602) 926-4221 (House). Correspondence goes to 1700 W. Washington, Phoenix, AZ 85007-2890. For more information on legislation go to http://www.azleg.state.az.us/. To reach the Governor, call 602-542-4331 or toll free 1-800-253-0883. To email her, either click on this link or cut and paste it into your server http://www.governor.state.az.us/post/feedback.htm