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Legislative Updates 2007Sierra Club 2007 Legislative Update #4 January 26, 2007 Hello Conservation Friends! Please mark your calendar for February 6, 2007 from 10:00am to 1:30 p.m. for Progressive Lobby Day. Call Megan at (602) 650-0900 to r.s.v.p. Also, please set aside March 20 from 9:00 a.m. to Noon for Environmental Legislative Day. We will send more details on that soon. Both events are at the Capitol out on the lawn. Call me if you want more details or have any questions. This week, please call or email members of the House Transportation Committee and ask them to support HB2228 vehicle license tax; hybrid vehicles (McClure, Bee: Nelson). It allows for a special sticker for hybrid vehicles and a reduction in the cost of the vehicle license tax. Members of the committee include Representatives Ableser, Biggs, Crump, Farley, McClure, McLain, Nelson, Prezelski, Thrasher, and Jerry Weiers. You can find them at http://azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp?Body=S. Just click on their name and you will get their email address. You can also reach them by calling (602) 926-4221 and asking them to connect you with their office. For those outside the Phoenix area, just call 1-800-352-8404 and ask for the House member. Here is the schedule for this week. Please note that this is not a complete list of committees or bills, but just focuses on some of the bills we are following. Monday, January 29 Subcommittees on Education and Natural Resources at 9:00 a.m. in Senate Hearing Room 109 Adoption of Arizona State Parks Board, State Land Department, Game and Fish Department, Navigable Stream Adjudication Commission budgets Tuesday, January 30 Senate Transportation Committee at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 3 SB1325 vehicle emissions inspections; motorcycles (L. Gray) removes the requirement for motorcycle emissions inspections in Area A primarily Maricopa County. WATCH. Wednesday, January 31 Senate Commerce and Economic Development Committee at 9:00 a.m. in Senate Hearing Room 3 SB1323 antifreeze; aversive or bittering agent (Leff) requires a bittering agent be added to anti-freeze that is a good things but it removes all liability for injury, death, environmental or natural resource damage, related to the bitterant. Children, wildlife, and domestic pets have been harmed or killed from drinking antifreeze, which has a sweet taste. We need to further evaluate the liability issue in this bill, however. WATCH. Senate Natural Resources and Rural Affairs Committee at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 109 SB1119 water; overlapping service area providers (C. Gray, Aguirre, Arzberger, et al) states that a landowner’s right to use water from a service provider cannot be limited by another entity with an overlapping service area. This sounds like a power struggle between entities, but could have some significant negative consequences. WATCH. SB1193 DWR; general adjudications support; appropriation (Flake) provides $1 million for general adjudications support at the Department of Water Resources. This is the process where they determine the ownership of the water rights in streams and rivers. This is probably fine, although it would be nice to see more dollars going into protecting water resources and keeping our streams and rivers flowing. WATCH. SB1198 county powers; open fires (O’Halleran, Brown, Mason, et al) allows a county board of supervisors to adopt ordinances prohibiting open fires and campfires on lands in the unincorporated areas of the county that are private property islands within the boundaries of the National Forests, Bureau of Land Management Lands or state lands, if these other entities have implemented a prohibition. SUPPORT. SB1310 underground storage tanks (Flake, Brown: Huppenthal, et al) consists of primarily small technical changes. It limits the submittal of claims under the program to once per month per facility. This seems reasonable. It also limits the involvement of the Technical Appeals Panel to focusing on technical issues. I see no issues with this bill. WATCH. SB1311 channelization districts; Formation (Flake) removes the requirement that allows a county to form a channelization district that includes a city or town, if that city or town has also approved it. These channelization districts are a subsidy for the sand and gravel operators. This removes a requirement for cooperation between the political subdivisions counties and cities. This is a bad idea. OPPOSE. House Committee on Appropriations at 1:30 p.m. in House Hearing Room 1 HB2380 charitable organizations; tax credit (Anderson, Barnes, Biggs et al) clarifies what a charity must provide to the Arizona Department of Revenue and also how much a married couple can deduct on their taxes. WATCH. Thursday, February 1 House Water and Agriculture Committee at 9:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 1 Presentations Fred Morse, Co-chair of the Western Governor’s Association Solar Task Force; Jeff Schlegel, Southwest Energy Efficiency Project on Clean and Diversified Energy in Arizona, Herb Guenther, Director of Department of Water Resources on Statewide Water Advisory Group and the Colorado River Water agreement. HB2319 energy code advisory commission; repeal (Reagan) repeals this commission, but keeps the solar energy commission in place. There is probably not a great need to keep this. NEUTRAL. HB2321 adequate water supply; city designation (McLain: Crump, Groe, et al) this allows for alternative adequate water supply designation for cities that outside Active Management Areas if they have a contract for Colorado River water supplies. This was submitted for Bullhead City as they are now providing water versus the private water companies. We will continue to evaluate and monitor this for its impact. WATCH. HB2399 credit; stub outs; outlets; repeal (Yarbrough: Murphy) repeals the tax credit for solar stub outs or electric vehicle recharge outlets. Apparently, no one is using these. With the promotion of plug-in hybrids, I wonder if this is such a good idea. HB2485 well water; Colorado: Santa Cruz (Mason: Bradley, J. Burns, et al) adds some provisions relating to the Santa Cruz Active management Area and the consistency with the management goals. It also deals with wells along the Colorado Rivers. This needs further examination. WATCH. House Transportation Committee at 9:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 3 HB2228 vehicle license tax; hybrid vehicles (McClure, Bee: Nelson) allows for a special sticker for hybrid vehicles and a reduction in the cost of the vehicle license tax. SUPPORT. House Judiciary Committee at 9:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 4 HB2090 early ballots; verification notice (Nichols) requires county recorders to establish a method for notifying early ballot voters whether their ballots are verified and counted. SUPPORT. HB2159 political contributions; limits (B. Miranda, Alvarez, Hershberger, et al) raises the total that a candidate can receive from all political committees from $7,560 to $32,843 for non-statewide offices. I guess they think we need money to have an even greater influence on politics. This is not a good idea. OPPOSE. HB2565 nominating petitions; joint candidates (Robson) allows candidates who are running together in the same district to file joint petitions. Really, how hard is it to just get your petition signatures? For more information on these bills go to http://arizona.sierraclub.org/political_action/tracker/. Thank you for taking the time to learn more about the issues and to contact your legislators. 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/.
Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633 |