Legislative Updates 2004

Hi all! A couple more bad bills bit the dust this week, but along with them went some positive measures as well. HB2272 school buildings; air quality (Gullett, Hershberger, Landrum Taylor et al) was supposed to be heard in Environment this coming week, but apparently Representative Hart changed his mind. At this point, the bill is dead unless the speaker agrees to pull it from the Environment Committee and even then it still has the Appropriations Committee hurdle.

HB2667 chemical fire response coordination (Landrum Taylor: Clark) was held in Environment this week and is not scheduled for next week, so it also appears to be dead. It requires cities with more than 75,000 people to develop a process for identifying and tracking commercial and industrial buildings that use or have hazardous materials on site. It requires the Emergency Response Commission to ensure that training programs include notification procedures and coordination of services. The League of Cities and Towns, City of Phoenix, and Chamber of Commerce opposed it.

In the more bad news category, SB1085 solid waste fees (Allen, Blendu Huffman) passed out of Appropriations 11-2. It steals half of the recycling tipping fee (currently 25 cents) for operating the solid waste program. The Department of Environmental Quality is taking these dollars instead of asking for a tipping fee increase. Senator Mead did try to strip the bad amendment on the bill. Please thank him for that.

And HCR2011 voter approved expenditures; limitation (Konopnicki, Barnes, Gray C, Hubbs, et al) was amended and passed out of the Committee of the Whole without comment. It recalls from the ballot a measure the legislature referred last year and incorporates that measure into this referral. HCR2011 undercuts voter approved ballot measures by requiring that any measure involving a mandatory expenditure also include a new revenue source ­ not the general fund. It also allows 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 and allows them to use that amount to compute future expenditures. The legislature is likely to always say there is not enough money and easily divert dollars. PLEASE CALL YOUR HOUSE MEMBERS AGAIN THIS WEEK AND ASK THEM TO OPPOSE THIS BILL.

SCR1047 supermajority vote; enabling local taxes (Martin: Blendu, Harper, et al) was amended and passed in Senate Finance 6-2. It refers to the ballot a constitutional amendment which requires a two-thirds vote of the legislature for any measure that authorizes local government, including school districts, to implement a tax. I guess this relates to the transportation tax again. They have enough trouble getting any kind of revenue measures through.

SB1081 animal and ecological terrorism (Verschoor, Allen, Harper, et al) was amended significantly to include a narrow set of crimes, but we still question the need. Why this and not white supremacists?

In the good news category, SCR1044 initiative and referendum; signature distribution (Harper) was defeated in the Senate Judiciary Committee. It would have referred to the ballot a measure that requires that a certain percentage of the signatures for an initiative or referendum measure come from eight different counties.

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. It was not heard in Federal Mandates and Property Rights and is not scheduled for next week, so either it is dead or it will be withdrawn. We will watch for a re-birth.

HCR2009 initiatives; filing date (Quelland, Biggs, C. Gray, et al) was amended in Judiciary to reduce the number of required signatures for initiatives and referenda while moving the date for filing back to seven months before the general election (currently it is four months), but it also allows circulation up to 27 months ahead of time (This creates technical problems and is supposed to be fixed on the floor.) The Chamber of Commerce hates the provision to lower the signature threshold, so it is likely to have trouble.

Here is what is coming up this week:

Monday, March 8^th

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

HB2163 will have a strike everything amendment on water replenishment.

HB2190 water quality fees (Huffman) raises the fees for aquifer protection permits. This will need a two-thirds vote of each house to pass as it includes fee increases. Hart is talking about stripping out the most important parts of the bill, so it may end up being pretty worthless.

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.

HB2276 solid waste management; effective date (Hart) will have a strike everything on waterless technologies.

HB2367 animal and ecological terrorism (Biggs, Quelland: C. Gray, et al) will have strike everything of the same title. It is very much improved, but we continue to question the need for it and also whether it might have some 14^th amendment equal protection issues.

HB2484 will have a strike everything on WQARF amendments. I am not sure why they are doing this one. It appears to allow the director to more easily remove sites from the WQARF registry. I did not see any public notice or involvement in this, so have some concerns.

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.

SB1061 archaeology advisory commission; continuation (Allen) continues this through 2014.

SB1062 water infrastructure finance authority; continuation (Allen) continues this though 2014.

Tuesday, March 9^th

House Committee on Ways and Means at 8:30 am in HHR4

HB2614 recreational corridor channelization districts (Nelson, Arnold, Hubbs, et al) is the Rock Products bill to get the taxpayers to clean up their mess. It allows the establishment of these special taxing districts.

HB2689 mining reuse areas; tax incentives (Bustamante, Gallardo, Graf, et al) allows mining reuse areas to be established as enterprise zones, regardless of whether or not the sites have been reclaimed. It seems to me that we ought to improve our reclamation law so communities are not stuck with these contaminated sites before we make them enterprise zones.

House Committee on Appropriations at 1:30 p.m. in HHR1

HB2097 will have a strike everything on excess utilities plan. This could help promote energy conservation in the schools.

HB2357 school districts; restructuring (Biggs, Quelland) S/E public records; redaction of information requires the public to pay for redaction of confidential information. This is a way to deter people from accessing public information by making it too expensive. It is the responsibility of agencies, paid for with tax dollars, to provide this public information at a minimal cost to us. WE STRONGLY OPPOSE THIS MEASURE.

HB2527 schools; solar equipment (Clark, Boone, Graf, and Mitchell) requires the school facilities board to include guidelines on the use of renewable energy in schools including guidelines to require the use of solar cooling and hot water heating methods instead of conventional systems.

HB2528 state buildings; solar standards (Boone, Clark, Graf, and Mitchell) requires that energy life cycle costing be used to evaluate all solar water heating and water cooling facilities for state buildings. It requires the use of solar water heating and cooling if the simple payback is twelve years or less or equal to the useful life of the product.

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

HB2088 brownfields program (Huffman, Gullett: O’Halleran) is an emergency measure (this means it requires a 2/3 vote, that it is effective immediately upon signature of the governor, and that it is not subject to referendum). It changes the eligibility for brownfields cleanup revolving loan fund assistance. It broadens the activities for which the dollars can be used.

HB2244 water rights; Zuni settlement (Konopnicki, Hanson, Hubbs, et al) facilitates this water settlement and the ability to transfer water rights that are not appurtenant to the land. It can be used for restoration of vegetation and for wildlife. This is a positive measure.

HB2279 statewide solid waste management plans (Hart) requires the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to notify solid waste facilities six months prior to changing the statewide plan.

HB2307 fire districts; lake improvement funds (Wagner, Nelson, O’Halleran, et al) restricts the use of these funds to only lakes where gas-powered watercraft are allowed. Why?

HB2403 clean bus fleets (Hart) makes minor technical changes.

HB2419 heavy duty diesel engines; extension (Gullett, Huffman, Nelson et al) gives smaller fleets two more years to comply with phasing out the pre-1988 diesel engines. This is annoying to say the least. Swift Transportation pushed this as an alternative to requiring cleaner burning diesel fuel. They indicated that all the pre-1988 engines would be gone by 2005 ­ they neglected to ask the small trucking outfits what they thought, however. It demonstrates the failure of compromise in the legislative process and it also demonstrates the need to require CARB diesel ­ something that will apply across the board.

Wednesday, March 10^th

House Committee on Natural Resources, Agriculture, Water and Native American Affairs — No meeting.

Senate Committee on Appropriations at 1:30 am in SHR109

SB1039 has a strike everything amendment on military facilities preservation. The amendment swipes some of the voter approved growing smarter dollars that are supposed to go to state trust land preservation. It violates the voter protection act. WE OPPOSE IT.

Thursday, March 4^th

House Committee on Judiciary at 8:30 a.m. in HHR3

SB1306 elections; cities; counties; influence; prohibition (Weirs; Allen) prohibits the use of city, county, etc. resources to influence elections. This is a good idea

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

SB1197 eminent domain; condemnation; leasehold interest (Tibshraeny, Br0therton, Martin, et al) prohibits a government entity from condemning a leasehold interest in a building unless the underlying property is taken. This has potential to impact billboards, so we are watching it.

On March 16^th at 5:30 pm, there is Keep It Clean kickoff rally to support the Clean Elections Act and defeat the effort to repeal it. It will be held at Hope Hall, Grace Lutheran Church at 1124 N. 3^rd St in Phoenix. (See back.) Please come if you can and please let me know if you plan to be there. Thanks!

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