Legislative Updates 2004

Hi all! Thank you to all of you for calling and emailing to try and get the Game and Fish Department and the Coronado National Forest to look at other options for the Sabino Canyon mountain lions. While the agencies have not backed off on their plans to kill the lions, they have heard from many people, including the governor, who have expressed concerns about what they are doing and the way they are doing it. It is a microcosm of the problem with wildlife management in Arizona and a Game and Fish Commission that is out of touch with both the science and the public. This Saturday you have a chance to express your concerns to the Commission. They are meeting on Saturday, March 13^th at the Best Western Inn Suites located at 6201 N. Oracle Road in Tucson. I would try to be there by 8:30am so you can hear the discussion of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan and then the Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness proposal. You can also express concerns about the mountain lions during the general “Call to the Public.”

Please email Governor Napolitano and thank her for supporting wildlife and for asking Game and Fish to both look at other options and to better involve the public. You can email her at http://www.governor.state.az.us/post/feedback.htm Either just click on the link or cut and paste it into your server. You can also call the governor at 602-542-4331 or toll free 1-800-253-0883.

SB1039 S/E military facilities preservation; appropriation swipes $14.3 million of the $20 million in voter approved growing smarter dollars on annual basis. These dollars are specifically for state trust land preservation per 1998’s Proposition 303. The provisions in the strike everything amendment on SB1039 violate the Voter Protection Act — 1998's Proposition 105. Please call the Senate Rules Committee and ask them to reject this measure that is so clearly inconsistent with voter protection provisions of the Arizona Constitution.

Also call your senators and ask them to oppose SB1085 solid waste fees (Allen, Blendu, Huffman). It passed out of Committee of the Whole on Thursday, so it will probably be third read early next week. It steals half of the recycling tipping fee (currently 25 cents) and shifts it to the general solid waste program at the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). While we think that the ADEQ should get funding to run the program, an important public health function, diverting these dollars is a bad idea and bad public policy ­ the robbing Peter to pay Paul strategy. It is unlikely that these recycling dollars will ever revert to the intended programs where they fund city, county, and school district work to reduce waste, properly dispose of household hazardous waste, promote composting, and other issues that keep waste out of the landfills, thereby prolonging the life of the landfill and saving everyone money in the long haul. Educating the public about these issues also helps better protect our soil and water.

Finally, please call senators and ask them to reject SB1081 animal and ecological terrorism (Verschoor, J. Allen, Harper, et al). The most egregious first amendment problems were amended out of it, but we still question the need for the legislation as well as the potential unintended consequences. The Sierra Club has long condemned violence, including that done in the name of protecting the environment. There are ample conditions under current law to prosecute those engaged in illegal conduct of this nature. Why is this needed? We have strong laws against damaging property, trespass, arson and specifically damaging agricultural or lab facilities. They include 11-1023 Unauthorized release of animals; classification; damages, 17-316 Interference with rights of hunters; violation; classification, and 3-114 Liability for unauthorized destruction of field crop product; damages; definition, among others.

Here are some updates:

HCR2009 initiatives; filing date (Quelland, Biggs, C. Gray, et al) passed out of the House 31-27-2. Representative Quelland backed off on his commitment to several groups to amend the bill to reduce the number of required signatures as a trade off for pushing back the filing date by three months for filing signatures. The bill got out of Judiciary with the signature reduction amendment and Representative Quelland indicated to all of those with whom he met, that this was going to be how the bill moved forward. This measure hurts grassroots organizations and further advantages wealthy interests relative to initiatives.

HCR2011 voter approved expenditures; limitation (Konopnicki, Barnes, Gray C, Hubbs, et al) passed out of the House 31-27-2. It 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 divert these dollars.

SCR1047 supermajority vote; enabling local taxes (Martin: Blendu, Harper, et al) passed out of Committee of the Whole on Thursday. 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.

Both SB1212 healthy forest pilot program (Jarrett, Bee, Chase) and HB2549 healthy forest pilot program (Chase, Arnold, Carruthers, et al) were amended on the floor on Thursday. The amendments were unavailable on the internet Friday morning, so I am not sure what they did. What I do know is they probably made the legislation worse rather than better and that it is unlikely that they focused on the areas of agreement. These are poorly drafted bills that were the product of some sham legislative hearings last fall. They set up a process for developing a pilot project at the state land department. No environmental perspective was included in the drafting, nothing about protecting old growth or focusing on the wildland urban interface, or really even protecting communities. This is a silly bill intended to make a point, but not to make a difference. I will have more on these bills next week.

HB2272 school buildings; air quality (Gullett, Hershberger, Landrum Taylor et al) may come back as a strike everything amendment in the senate. Please stay tuned on this one.

This week there is not much going on in the committees. They will be moving bills on the Floor and continuing to hash out the budget. Here is what’s up:

Tuesday, March 16^th

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

HB2507 regional transportation authority; excise tax (Huffman, J. Burns, Cajero Bedford, et al) gives authorization to the Pima Association of Governments to ask the voters to impose a ý cent sales tax for transportation and directs them to develop a 20-year regional transportation plan. It is a controversial measure and could mean more Maricopa-style planning for Pima. After 60 years of unbridled road-building while spending microscopic amounts on public transit, we now need transportation plans that lean heavily to public transit. A regional PUBLIC transportation authority with plans that reflect that name would be worthy of enthusiastic support. If they really need more dollars for roads, why not raise and use the gas tax?

Thursday, March 18^th

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

SB1197 eminent domain; condemnation; leasehold interest (Tibshraeny, Brotherton, 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.

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