Legislative Updates 2006

Sierra Club 2006 Legislative Update #11

March 24, 2006

Hello Conservation Friends!  The good news is that this coming week should be the last week to hear bills in committee.  The bad news is that there are still plenty of opportunities to push through some pretty awful legislation. As the session wears on, they do seem to be willing to deep-six a few more of the more outrageous measures, however.  SB1508 regulation of off-highway vehicles (Flake, Bennett) was never brought back for reconsideration, but it could still reappear as a striker.

SCR1019 NOW: Private Property Rights Protection Act passed the Senate on Wednesday 21-5-4 and that is truly bad news for growth management, land use planning, and any efforts to protect our deserts, grasslands, and forests from the rampant urban sprawl.  HCR2031 NOW: compensation; land use regulation (C. Gray), its companion bill in the House was defeated, so there is still hope of defeating SCR1019 as well.   These bills refer to the ballot measures that require governments to compensate property owners for nearly every zoning or land use decision they make.  Please call and thank the following legislators for voting no on these measures:  Senators Brotherton, Garcia, Miranda, Rios and Soltero and Representatives Alvarez, Bradley, Brown, Burns, Burton Cahill, Cajero Bedford, Chase, Downing, Gallardo, Garcia, Hershberger, Kirkpatrick, Konopnicki, Landrum Taylor, Lopez, Lujan, Mason, McClure, McCune Davis, Meza, Miranda, Nelson, O’Halleran, Prezelski, Reagan, Rios, Sinema, Tom, and Jim Weiers.   For contact information, go to http://www.azleg.state.az.us/MemberRoster.asp or go to the bottom of this update and use the general phone numbers.

This week, please call members of the House Environment Committee and ask them to please support SB1350 pesticides; child care facilities; notifications (Allen).  The bill requires that child care facilities use licensed applicators for pesticide application.  Furthermore, it requires that a pesticide applicator notify a child care facility at least seventy- two hours in advance of any pesticide application and requires that the Department of Health Services work with child care facilities, personnel and the pesticide applicators to develop a policy to notify parents, guardians, and personnel at least forty-eight hours in advance of any pesticide application.  Currently notification laws are in place for children attending schools, but not child care facilities.  It provides some exemptions for the least toxic substances.  Committee Members include Representatives:  Barnes, Chair, 926-5503  rbarnes@azleg.gov  ; M. Garcia 926-5830  mgarcia@azleg.gov  ; Huffman 926-3394  shuffman@azleg.gov  ; Landrum Taylor 926-5864  llandrum@azleg.gov  ; Pierce 926-3163  gpierce@azleg.gov  ; Reagan  926-5828  mreagan@azleg.gov  ; Robson 926-5549 brobson@azleg.gov  ; Rosati 926-5169  crosati@azleg.gov  ; and Sinema 926-5058 ksinema@azleg.gov .  

Check out the Legislative Tracker at http://arizona.sierraclub.org/political_action/tracker/  for information on these bills.

Coming up this week at the Legislature (agendas can change throughout the week, not all bills are listed):

Monday, March 27

House Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture at 9:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 5

SB1103 omnibus agriculture act of 2006 (Arzberger, Aguirre, Cannell, et al) makes several changes to the agriculture statutes including adding a definition of livestock officer and making additional information exempt from the public records law.  WATCH

SB1251 NOW: unclaimed property; agricultural protection fund (Flake:  Konopnicki) increases dollars to the Agricultural Protection Fund, the County Fairs Racing Betterment Fund, the County Fairs Livestock and Agriculture Promotion Fund, the Breeders’ Award Fund, the Stallion Award Fund and the County Fair Racing Fund.

SB1438 unlawful feeding of wildlife (Hellon: Cannell, L. Lopez) makes it a petty offense to feed wildlife intentionally in Pima and Maricopa Counties, thus targeting the more urban areas of our state.  The bill excludes tree squirrels and birds and people who are in the process of hunting or fishing or people who are engaged in wildlife management activities.  We support this wildlife feeding ban measure because the feeding of wildlife promotes human-wildlife conflicts where both people and the animals are at risk. SUPPORT.

SB1550 copper state park (Flake, Brown, Chase, et al) establishes a state park near Kearny that is contingent on the conveyance of BLM lands and state trust lands, but no longer includes the private parcels belonging to Asarco.  That makes this a ridiculous proposal and not something we can support.  This is part of the Resolution Copper Company land swap in congress that will result in them getting Oak Flats campground.  OPPOSE.

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

HCR2002 eminent domain; presumption (Gray, Burges, Pearce) will have a strike everything on balanced budget. 

Wednesday, March 29

Senate Committee on Commerce and Economic Development at 9:00 a.m. in Senate Hearing Room 1

HB2779 NOW: hazardous disclosure; property (Reagan: McComish) provides liability immunity to the seller upon written disclosure and no criminal or civil action may be brought against either the seller or a realtor. OPPOSE.

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

SB1143 small water systems; interim operators (Arzberger, Aguirre, Bee)  authorizes the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority to provide emergency grants to small water system interim operators.  SUPPORT.

SB1350 pesticides; child care facilities; notifications (Allen).  See above.  SUPPORT.

SB1356 hazardous air pollutants; de minimis (Allen) makes it more difficult to trigger regulation of existing facilities relative to HAPs.  We are hoping it may be amended to neutralize this provision.  OPPOSE.

Senate Natural Resources and Rural Affairs Committee at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 109

HB2033 NOW: mine inspector; appropriation; nonlapsing (Barnes) extends the time the State Mine Inspector can collect reclamation plans fees and exempts those monies from lapsing.  OKAY.

HB2036 stagnant water; pest control; notice (Barnes) will have a strike everything amendment that deals with west Nile virus; county notification. WATCH.

HB2294 NOW: regional water planning (O’Halleran) will have a strike everything amendment on equine dentistry.  Straight from the horse’s mouth, the legislature is doing nothing to address important water issues.

HB2316 water; maximum daily loads; report (Barnes) will have a strike everything amendment on flood control districts.  It is not yet posted.

HB2429 solar energy tax incentives (Mason, Boone, Chase, et al) will have an amendment to remove the increase in the residential tax credit for installation of solar devices.  We do not like the amendment, but the bill is still worth supporting.  It establishes commercial solar tax credits that allow a 10% credit for the installation of solar energy devices for commercial or industrial purposes in a trade or business located in Arizona.  There is an annual cap of $7 million on the commercial tax credit. SUPPORT. 

HB2836 NOW: fuel tax; forest products (Chase: Jarrett) will have a strike everything amendment on forest health.  It is not yet posted, but I have heard that it authorizes private land owners to cut down trees on national forests near their land.  Last I knew state law could not do authorize that.  OPPOSE.

HB2475 NOW:  clean innovation technology task force (Konopnicki, Downing) sets up a task force to promote plans to develop emissions control technologies for the generation of electric power. WATCH.

HCR2045 state trust land reform (Nelson, Boone, Brown, et al) is a measure to counter the Conserving Arizona’s Future Initiative.  While we are not supporting the initiative, we do not think it is appropriate for the Legislature to try and confuse voters in order to defeat it.  HCR2045 protects very little land and does not adequately protect the identified conservation lands as it keeps them open to mining activities.  Conservation lands are restricted against development, but development only precludes construction of buildings, it does not preclude the construction of roads, canals, power transmission lines, etc.  OPPOSE.

Senate Committee on Government Accountability and Reform at 1:30 p.m. in SHR2

HB2381 NOW: development fee; capital improvements plan (Paton, Bee) requires municipalities to jump through even more hoops in order to assess development impact fees.  The problem is not that developers are paying too much; it is that they are paying too little.  Why make it more difficult to assess development impact fees and why did they exclude arts facilities?  OPPOSE.

Thanks 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 legislators’ offices 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/ .