Legislative Updates 2004

Hi all! The session continues and there is little apparent movement on the budget, although there were many closed door budget meetings this week, so at least they’re meeting. It is that time of year when really bad ideas resurface as floor amendments, good amendments get stripped off, controversial measures get slipped into a bill in a conference committee, or move quickly from being stalled in rules for weeks to a floor vote within a few days. One such bill is SB 1197 eminent domain; condemnation; leasehold interests. The City of Tucson got the bill amended in committee to address concerns about nonconforming uses like billboards. That amendment was withdrawn on the floor and the bill again requires government to acquire the underlying property when it is condemning leasehold interests. This could potentially affect any future condemnations of nonconforming uses, such as billboards, where the goal is the elimination of the nonconforming uses.  There would be no purpose in acquiring the underlying land when the nonconforming use is a tenant, not the property owner.

PLEASE CALL SENATORS THIS WEEK AND ASK THEM TO OPPOSE HCR2009 initiatives; filing date (Quelland, Biggs, C. Gray, et al). The vote is close on this one, so we have an opportunity to kill it. I still think calls are more effective than emails, so if you can phone your senator, that would be wonderful. The bill refers to the ballot a measure which requires initiative signatures to be 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 get more signatures from volunteer signature gatherers. I have heard that they might try to put an amendment on it on the floor that would push back the time when you can begin collecting signatures to 27 months. That is a ridiculous amendment. Realistically, you do not want to file your petition until you actually know what passed in the previous election. This would just further muck up the statutes and create a great deal of confusion on constitutional changes as well.

ALSO, PLEASE CALL HOUSE MEMBERS AND ASK THEM TO VOTE NO ON SB1081 animal and ecological terrorism. This is an unnecessary and silly bill which clearly overreaches. It passed out of the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday after 9:00 p.m. I am sure they wanted maximum public review of their actions. There was much laughter about the bill and it was somewhat entertaining to hear Representative Biggs try to explain why it was a compelling state issue that needed to be addressed by this 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, and even a blatantly unconstitutional measure, 3-113. Action for false claims against perishable agricultural food product; limitation; definitions. (This is commonly referred to as the Veggie Hate Crimes Law.)

HB2278 assured water supply certificate; assignment (Hart) allows transfer of an 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. Senator Arzberger has prepared a floor amendment which would provide public notice for two weeks. While this is hardly adequate, it will at least give the public an opportunity to comment. They are precluding any standing for the public to appeal or bring any kind of judicial action relative to the transfer. This was retained on the Committee of the Whole calendar on Thursday, so it leads me to believe that the Homebuilders are up to further shenanigans.

SB1085 solid waste fees (Allen, Blendu Huffman) was held in the Appropriations Committee and therefore died. This was payback as apparently the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) had not shown the proper enthusiasm for Representative Farnsworth’s bill to bail out insurance companies relative to the Underground Storage Tank program (see SB1306). Chairman Pearce made the ADEQ lobbyists wait around until after 8:00 p.m. and then told them he was holding the bill. It was a rude and petty move, but not unusual. SB1085 swipes half of the 25 cent per ton recycling tipping fee and diverts it to running the solid waste program at the ADEQ. While we think the ADEQ should get funding to run the program, diverting these dollars is a bad idea and bad public policy. 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. Apparently ADEQ will try to get this amended onto another bill and will include a one year sunset, so that will mean a temporary rather than permanent shift of the fee.

I heard that it is likely HCR2011 voter approved expenditures; limitation (Konopnicki, Barnes, Gray C, Hubbs, et al) is dead. Although this is good news, we still have the anti-initiative measure on the ballot from last year’s session. While it does not always apply, a good rule of thumb is to vote no on whatever the legislature refers to the ballot.

Legislators and the governor’s office are meeting to meld into one bill HB2549 S/E Healthy Forests and SB1212 S/E Healthy Forests, the logging subsidy bills, and HB2127 S/E Healthy Forests, the measure to promote Firewise communities. Meanwhile, in the spirit of cooperation (not) the House leadership moved SB1212 through caucus this week. That means it could come to the floor at any point. We are still asking that they support the following principles in the forest bills:

Save the remaining old growth forests (only 5% is remaining in the southwest).

Protect the large, more fire resistant trees.

Target thinning efforts on small diameter trees (12” and smaller).

Focus limited dollars on thinning and prescribed burns near communities at risk.

There was additional discussion on the wildlife immunity bill, but no resolution. Apparently, legislators think that the ranchers should be paid for every blade of grass that elk eat and also for reintroduction programs. They talked about prairie dogs and bubonic plague, wolves and cows, etc. This will likely have to be addressed in a future session.

It looks like HB2527 schools; solar equipment (Clark, Boone, Graf, and Mitchell) and HB2528 state buildings; solar standards (Boone, Clark, Graf, and Mitchell) have died in Appropriations as they were not heard this week. HB2526 solar electricity; property tax classification (Clark, Boone, Graf, Mitchell), which directs the Department of Commerce to develop a program for tax incentives for businesses that produce energy via on-site solar energy generation equipment, died in the Commerce Committee. HB2613 taxation solar energy equipment (Graf: Boone, Carruthers, et al) passed out of Finance 5-3-1, but may die in the Rules committee. That bill provides a reduction in property tax valuation for commercial and residential systems extends the state personal income tax credit - up to $5,000 per residence and creates a state business income tax credit - up to $25,000 per building. HB2703 state buildings; energy savings (Boone, Graf), a bill which requires the Department of Administration to use the energy conservation fund to implement additional energy conservation measures in state buildings, is ready for the Floor and may be the only renewable energy bill left alive.

SB1306 had a strike everything on storage tanks; underground. It does away with the program over time (this is a good thing as it has become a big ol’ welfare program for industry), but also bails out insurance companies and Bennett Oil Company (the senate president Ken Bennett owns this company).

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