Legislative Updates 2005

Hi all! The budget is on the way to the Governor and an almost certain veto. It is likely that next week they will continue to hash out the issues and eventually, as difficult as it will be for them, they will give the Governor a budget she can sign. In the meantime, certain interests in the business community — the big business interests — seek to further neuter the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality via the budget process. Apparently they find even a little enforcement of the environmental laws totally offensive, so they are seeking to hold the agency hostage via its budget, its continuation, and various other measures. This is not a new practice. Over the past 10 years, the big business interests, hiding behind the cloak of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, have bullied the agency into backing off on nearly everything that really protects the public’s health, our air, water and land. If they cannot get them to wink at enforcement, then they go to the legislature to weaken the laws, take away funding, etc. The only saving grace has been that we still have a federal Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the Superfund provisions, among others. These at least provide a protection floor.

I am sure many of you saw that the U.S. Senate voted to include drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the federal budget. This is so offensive; it is hard to know what to say. Several years ago, my husband and I backpacked in the area, including the area that is scheduled for drilling. It is a vast and magnificent landscape that provides a home to many creatures including one of the most impressive grizzly bears I have ever seen. Please do contact Senator McCain and thank him for doing the right thing and for supporting the Cantwell amendment. You can reach Senator McCain by writing: 241 Russell Senate Ofc. Bldg, United States Senate, Washington DC 20510 or phoning (202) 224-2235 and faxing (202) 228-2862. To email him go to http://mccain.senate.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=Contact.Home

And now for a little good news. This week, the planets were aligned just right (see vote detail) and HB2053 NOW: municipal ballot measures; signatures (Huffman) went down to defeat twice, so it is really dead in the House. Because Representative Lopez asked for reconsideration and it was defeated again, they cannot request reconsideration in the future. At this point, the only way they can bring it back is by doing a strike everything amendment, but considering that the vote was 16-42-2, I would say that it is time for them to let it go. This was the measure that allowed cities and towns of less than 50,000 people to change the signature requirement for a referendum from a percentage of those who voted in the last city general election for mayor or council to a percentage of those who voted in the last presidential or gubernatorial election, whichever occurred last. Please contact the following representatives and thank them for voting no on this measure. They include: A. Aguirre aaguirre@azleg.state.az.us 926-4430; Alvarez malvarez@azleg.state.az.us 926-5895; Bradley dbradley@azleg.state.az.us 926-3300; Barnes rbarnes@azleg.state.az.us 926-5503; Biggs abiggs@azleg.state.az.us 926-4371; Boone tboone@azleg.state.az.us 926-3297; Burges jburges@azleg.state.az.us 926-5861; Burton Cahill mbcahill@azleg.state.az.us 926-5896; Cajero Bedford ocajerob@azleg.state.az.us 926-5835; Downing tdowning@azleg.state.az.us 926-5108; Farnsworth efarnswo@azleg.state.az.us 926-5735; Gallardo sgallard@azleg.state.az.us 926-3392; M. Garcia mgarcia@azleg.state.az.us 926-5830; Gorman pgorman@azleg.state.az.us 926-4002; C. Gray cdgray@azleg.state.az.us 926-5495; Kirkpatrick akirkpat@azleg.state.az.us 926-5160; Knaperek lknapere@azleg.state.az.us 926-4225; Landrum Taylor llandrum@azleg.state.az.us 926-5864; Lopes plopes@azleg.state.az.us 926-3278; Lopez llopez@azleg.state.az.us 926-4089; Lujan dlujan@azleg.state.az.us 926-5829; Mason lmason@azleg.state.az.us 926-5874; McClure mmcclure@azleg.state.az.us 926-3312; McCune Davis ddavis@azleg.state.az.us 926-5412; McLain nmclain@azleg.state.az.us 926-5051; Meza rmeza@azleg.state.az.us 926-3425; B. Miranda bmiranda@azleg.state.az.us 926-4893; Murphy rmurphy@azleg.state.az.us 926-3255; O’Halleran tohaller@azleg.state.az.us 926-4079; Pearce rpearce@azleg.state.az.us 926-5760; Pierce gpierce@azleg.state.az.us 926-3163; Prezelski tprezels@azleg.state.az.us 926-3424; Quelland dquellan@azleg.state.az.us 926-4639; P. Rios prios@azleg.state.az.us 926-5761; Robson brobson@azleg.state.az.us 926-5549; Rosati crosati@azleg.state.az.us 926-5169; Sinema ksinema@azleg.state.az.us 926-5058; Smith dsmith@azleg.state.az.us 926-5766; Stump bstump@azleg.state.az.us 926-5413; Tom atom@azleg.state.az.us 926-5862; J. Weiers jweiers@azleg.state.az.us 926-4173; and J.P Weiers jpweiers@azleg.state.az.us 926-5894. (All numbers are 602. You can also use the 1-800 number listed above.)

Both of the following bills are scheduled to be voted on by the entire House (Third Read) on Monday. Please call or email again and ask your House members to support these measures. Remember that a phone call is most effective and it helps you to establish a relationship with your legislators and with the legislators’ assistants.

HB2390 energy efficiency appliance standards (Mason) sets the minimum level of energy efficiency for 13 products such as commercial refrigerators and freezers and traffic signals not covered by federal standards. Through using less energy, this legislation would save $700 million for Arizona consumers and businesses over the next 25 years; save 15 billion gallons of water by 2020; and save energy by avoiding one electric power plant by 2020. The standards apply only to new products ­ they do not affect existing products already purchased and used by consumers and businesses.

HB2374 solar equipment; taxation (Mason, Downing) provides for residential and commercial tax credits for solar energy devices. There are limits on the credits. This helps open the door for more solar development in Arizona which would benefit public health and the economy and create more energy independence.

If you're outside the Phoenix area, you can call your legislator's office toll free at 1-800-352-8404. Go to http://www.azleg.state.az.us/MemberRoster.asp for individual email addresses and phone numbers. In the Phoenix area you can also call (602) 926-3559 (Senate) or (602) 926-4221 (House).

SB1333 NOW: ecological and animal terrorism was vetoed by the Governor. Please call, email or write the Governor and thank her for defeating this overly broad and unnecessary legislation which was intended to stigmatize certain interests. To reach the Governor, call 602-542-4331 or toll free 1-800-253-0883. Her fax number is 602-542-1381. 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

Here’s the schedule of key issues for this coming week:

Monday, March 21^st

House Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture at 9:00 a.m. in HHR5

SB1235 CAGRD omnibus; water (Flake, Arzberger, Brown, et al) states that when a municipal provider terminates water service and fails to pay the replenishment tax, a new provider that comes into the area must pay the tax before operating in the area. It also allows a conservation district to apply to transfer credits in its replenishment reserve subaccount to its conservation district account, among other things. The CAGRD promotes development on undisturbed land versus agricultural land and is another sprawl machine that ultimately allows developers to move forward with development when they really do not have an assured water supply. This bill probably does not make it worse, however. MONITOR.

Tuesday, March 22^nd

Senate Committee on Transportation at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1

HB2380 air fund; CNG school buses (Boone, Barnes, Gray, et al) allows the diesel low emissions incentive grants to be used for compressed natural gas and for diesel buses that have been retrofitted with original manufacturers’ equipment for compressed natural gas. This is all provided that they do not exceed the incremental cost differential from conventional diesel fuel schools buses. This is a battle between industries. Ultimately, we would like to see the cleanest school buses possible. MONITOR.

HB2461 beautification; highways; advertising (Gorman: Pierce) sets a standard that would allow billboards to have electronic panels that could change copy as frequently as every six seconds and effectively reverse 35 years of sound public policy under the Arizona Highway Beautification Act prohibiting such displays. It also threatens what remains of our “dark skies”. OPPOSE.

HB2462 highway beautification; outdoor advertising (Gorman: Pierce) exempts many huge commercial signs from the Act altogether, no matter how far they are from the actual business they advertise. OPPOSE.

Wednesday, March 23^rd

House Committee on K-12 Education at 9:00 a.m. in HHR3

SB1009 school buildings; air quality (L. Gray) makes limited changes relating to the responsibilities of the school facilities board and school district governing boards to help improve the learning environment for Arizona school children. It requires that the School Facilities Board (SFB) provide information to school districts on how they can limit exposure to pollutants and other harmful emissions. This information must be provided at least every two years. It also requires the SFB to ensure that a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment is conducted prior to approval of a new school building project. It prohibits the SFB from approving a project site if that site cannot meet, with reasonable expenditures, the same criteria established for residential properties. It requires that the schools operate their HVAC systems up to standard 62 recommendations or the applicable standard at the time the system was installed. This is not out of the Senate yet, but we are hopeful it will get to this committee soon. SUPPORT.

Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Rural Affairs at 1:30 p.m. in SHR109

HB2613 forest health amendments (Chase, Brown, Gray C., et al) further promotes various kinds of tax subsidies including transaction privilege tax, income tax, and property tax for the forest products industries. It also cuts the use tax in half for vehicles that are transporting forest products. The key problem with the bill is it does not promote or subsidize the products for which there is no market —small diameter trees—instead it leaves it wide open for subsidies for logging old growth and larger diameter trees. OPPOSE.

HCM2007 CAP water priority (Mason, Chase, Landrum Taylor, et al) is a postcard to Congress which among other things encourages Congress to take actions to construct or improve regulatory storage facilities in the lower Colorado River system, operate the Yuma desalting plant and augment the flow of the Colorado River to protect Arizona's Colorado River water supplies. We oppose this because of the folly of operating the Yuma Desalinization Plant. It does not make economic sense as it is very costly and it will harm the environment by destroying the Ciénega de Santa Clara, located at the eastern edge of the Colorado River Delta. It is an open water wetland that covers more than 40,000 acres and is the largest remaining wetland in the Delta. OPPOSE.

House Committee on Environment at 1:30 p.m. in HHR5

SB1419 WQARF; reconcile conflicting amendments (Allen) makes some minor technical changes.

Thanks again for your help and support! To email legislators go to http://www.azleg.state.az.us/MemberRoster.asp If you are not sure who your legislators are, please go to http://www.vote-smart.org (You will need your 9-digit zipcode.) 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/ .