Legislative Updates 2004

Hi all! I apologize for the length of this update. It is a big week in the legislature with a lot of environmental bills on the agendas. You have probably seen that Game and Fish has suspended its hunt for the mountain lions in Sabino Canyon as they could not find the animals. Sabino Canyon is open again and hopefully we will end up with a positive outcome including stronger awareness of the impacts of urban sprawl on wildlife and better understanding of what people can do to protect themselves from a bad lion encounter. It is important that the public abide by these safety tips in lion country. Don’t hike alone. Keep children close to you. Don’t run. Do try to appear larger and don’t bend or crouch over. (You don’t want to look like prey.) Do not approach a lion if you do see one. Fight back if you are ever attacked. And don’t feed wildlife!

In response to the Sabino Canyon issue, the wildlife immunity bill, which we support, is back. (See below.) Game and Fish is also exploring some wildlife feeding restrictions and the governor is encouraging them to develop good protocol for when animals present a threat to people and need to be removed or killed. One idea is to establish a team of experts who are able and willing to evaluate a situation and provide a rapid response. If you have not done so already, please write and thank the governor, Senator Gabrielle Giffords, Senator Jorge Garcia, and Representative Ted Downing for working to inform the public and find out the facts relative to this issue. (See the end of alert for contact information.)

Please also call your senator again this week and ask her/him to vote no on HCR2011 voter approved expenditures; limitation (Konopnicki, Barnes, Gray C, Hubbs, et al). It refers to the ballot a measure which undercuts voter approved ballot measures by requiring that any measure involving a mandatory expenditure also include a new revenue source that cannot be the general fund. It does not matter if the dollars required are only for start up or if it is a relatively small expenditure. 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 it allows them to use that amount to compute future expenditures and is retroactive to 1998.

Here is what’s up in committees this week:

Monday, April 5^th

House Committee on Environment at 1:30 p.m. in HHR4

SB1064 regional haze; penalties (Allen) moves the penalties to the appropriate location in the statute.

SB1081 animal and ecological terrorism (Verschoor, Allen, Harper, et al) was amended to remove the most egregious first amendment problems, but is still a bad bill. We 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, however. 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. WE OPPOSE IT.

SB1085 solid waste fees (Allen, Blendu Huffman) swipes half of the 25 cent per ton recycling tipping fee and divert it to running the 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. WE OPPOSE THE BILL.

SB1349 water; exempt well provisions (Hellon: J. Burns) attempts to tighten up restrictions for the drilling of exempt wells in active management areas and within 100 feet of a drinking water distribution system. Tightening up exempt well requirements is a good idea. WE SUPPORT IT.

Senate Committee on Education at 2:00 p.m. in SHR109

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. WE SUPPORT IT

Senate Committee on Finance at 2:00 p.m. in SHR1

HB2549 will have a strike everything on healthy forests. I think it involves tax breaks and tax credits for logging.

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.

Tuesday, April 6^th

Senate Natural Resources and Transportation Committee at 1:30 pm in SHR109

HB2127 will have a strike everything on healthy forests. The striker was not posted, but I am guessing it will include the governor’s proposal.

HB2137 game and fish commission members (Nelson, Hanson, Jayne, et al) limits game and fish commissioners to two terms and changes the term length from five to fours. This is the anti-Michael Golightly bill. Some people were ticked off that he was appointed by the governor for a third term. It is unnecessary as people seldom serve three terms.

HB2190 water quality fees (Huffman) raises the fee cap for aquifer protection permits, but does not change the other water quality fees. There may be an amendment to increase the other fees. We will support that.

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 and EPA would need to approve a State Implementation Plan change.

HB2277 NOW: water supply; replenishment; conservation (Hart) makes several changes relative to the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District (CAGRD) including authorizing Mohave County to store water outside the county. The CAGRD is a sprawl promoting entity, but this probably doesn’t make it worse.

HB2278 assured water supply certificate; assignment (Hart) allows transfer of assured water supply certificate under certain conditions. It eliminates any kind of public notice on this. We oppose that and would like to see public notice reinstated in the bill.

HB2279 statewide solid waste plans (Hart) will have a strike everything on solid waste management.

HB2355 will have a strike everything on recreational corridors. This is the Arizona Rock Products bill to get the taxpayers to clean up their mess. It allows the establishment of these special taxing districts.

HB2421 water monitoring assistance program: continuation (Gullett, J. Burns, Chase, et al) continues to January 2, 2010, a program to assist public water systems with complying with monitoring requirements.

HB2449 will have a strike everything on wildlife damage; absolute immunity. It states that public entities are immune from liability relative to the damage caused by wildlife either directly or indirectly. I am quite sure the livestock industry will try to kill this bill as they usually assert that every blade of grass is intended for their cows and therefore they believe they should be compensated for any grass eaten by elk. WE SUPPORT THE BILL.

HB2484 NOW: WQARF; revisions (Hart, Jayne, Allen et al) allows ADEQ to conduct a preliminary investigation if the agency gets information on a potential release, allows the them to remove contaminated sites from the list if there is another program taking care of it, etc. IT SEEMS FINE.

HB2549 will have a strike everything on healthy forests.

HB2590 stored water; recovery wells (J. Burns, Chase, Hershberger, et al) changes the conditions for obtaining a permit to recover stored water within Active Management Areas if the stored water is Colorado River water and if the recovery well is within the area of impact of the stored water and the person recovering is not the person who stored it, then the consent of the nearby water provider is not needed.

HB2616 department of agriculture; omnibus act (Mason, Carruthers, Chase, et al) places restrictions on day care centers locating within the quarter mile pesticide buffer zones, among other things. I am watching to make sure they do not reduce the buffer zones.

HB2651 municipal tank closures; counties (Flake, Chase) makes counties eligible for the municipal tank closure program. WE SUPPORT THIS.

HB2677 underground storage tanks; insurance; repeal (Farnsworth, Allen: Biggs) makes the State Assurance Fund (SAF) primary as of January 1, 2003 and therefore bails out the insurance companies as well as Bennett Oil (Ken Bennett is the president of the senate). It says the SAF can pay for clean up to residential standards. It repeals the SAF and the tax on fuel on June 30, 2011. We think the tax should continue in order to fund clean up of sites where there is no owner or operator to hold accountable and also to fund prevention. We do not think we should be bailing out the insurance companies. WE OPPOSE THIS BILL.

Senate Committee on Government at 1:30 pm in SHR1

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. WE SUPPORT THIS BILL.

Wednesday, April 7^th

House Committee on Natural Resources, Agriculture, Water & Native American Affairs at 8:30 a.m. in HHR4

SB1212 will have a strike everything amendment on healthy forest management zones

SB1246 pesticide regulation (Arzberger, L. Aguirre, Brotherton, et al) makes changes to the program to protect Arizona’s groundwater from pesticide contamination. The industry people wanted to get rid of specific numeric values. Instead the compromise allows the agency to use other methods if they find one that is more predictive of groundwater contamination. WE ARE NEUTRAL BUT WATCHING THIS.

Senate Committee on Judiciary at 9:00 a.m. in SHR1

HB2400 vested property rights (Farnsworth) establishes vested rights when a zoning application is approved or when a site plan is submitted and meets the zoning requirements. That is truly ridiculous. As if we need more land speculation or as if the developers didn’t have enough influence. WE OPPOSE THIS.

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

HB2399 will have a strike everything on structural pests control.

HB2437 will have a strike everything amendment regarding notice to commissioner; subdivision sales. This is likely to be the resurrection of SB1304 which 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. This 600 feet disclosure is a joke. Currently, the commissioner is requiring them to disclose those issues within two or three miles. WE OPPOSE THIS BILL.

HB2689 mining reuse areas; tax incentives (Bustamante, Gallardo, Graf, et al) See above.

Senate Committee on Appropriations at 1:30 a.m. in SHR109

HB2097 will have a strike everything on village incorporation.

HCR2009 initiatives; filing date (Quelland, Biggs, C. Gray, et al) refers to the ballot a measure which requires initiative signatures to filed seven months before the general election ­ currently it is four months. This measure hurts grassroots organizations and further advantages wealthy interests relative to initiatives as the grassroots entities usually need the time to get the signatures, especially as they usually use more volunteer signature gatherers. WE OPPOSE THE BILL.

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