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Legislative Updates 2007Sierra Club 2007 Legislative Update #12 “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” — Winston Churchill March 23, 2007 Hello Conservation Friends! Thank you again to everyone who came to and helped with Environmental Day on Tuesday. We had about 80 advocates turn out and around 20 legislators stopped by at one point. It was good for legislators to see a few more faces that care about conservation. We could always use more company next year, however. This week, please call your Arizona State Representatives and ask them to oppose SB1119 overlapping service area providers (C. Gray, Aguirre, Harper, et al.). This bill will undercut water conservation efforts in many cities and towns throughout Arizona, but is particularly aimed at Gilbert. If this passes, it means that anyone who is part of the irrigation district is not subject to any of the city or town’s ordinances or regulations relative to water. It firmly puts irrigation districts in the development business, but allows them to keep their “special” agricultural exemptions. It is a terrible bill and bad precedent. Legislators should reject it. To contact your representatives, go to http://www.azleg.gov/memberRoster.asp?Body=H or in the Phoenix area call (602) 926-4221, in Tucson you can call (520) 398-6000 or for any area outside the Phoenix area, call toll free 1-800-352-8404 and ask to be connected to your legislator’s office. This was not a great week for conservation at the legislature or much of anything else from what I can tell. They passed a bad water infrastructure funding bill in the House and in a House Committee moved forward SB1119, mentioned above. They have extended the time for hearing bills in committee that is hardly good news as it represents a chance to resurrect every bad idea possible. In other news: HB2443 NOW: user fee; off-highway vehicles (JP Weiers) passed out of the Senate Natural Resources and Rural Affairs Committee without opposition. It establishes a user fee for off-road vehicles. While we support increasing funding for law enforcement and the safety provisions in the bill as well as the language that prescribes where these vehicles are allowed and where they are not allowed, we still have some concerns about the allocation of the 60 percent of the dollars that will go to grants administered by Arizona State Parks. Our main concern is that these grants will be used primarily to open new areas to OHV activities, and to promote a use on the land that is decimating wildlife habitat, destroying vegetation, promoting soil erosion, and contributing to negative impacts on water and air quality. NEUTRAL. HB2369 NOW: temporary signage; preemption; abatement (Robson) passed out of the Senate Government Committee. It preempts municipalities from regulating garish and unsightly advertising schemes via sign walkers on and along our public rights-of-way while at the same time mandating a permitting system whose proceeds would not cover the cost of service delivery but would rather be deposited in a "beautification" fund. OPPOSE. SB1112 toxic fire response (Landrum Taylor, Miranda, Rios, et al.) passed out of the House Environment Committee without opposition. It sets up the Arizona Chemical Fire Response Coordination Task Force in order to better limit the exposure of the public and first responders to hazardous chemicals during an emergency. SUPPORT. Here is what is coming up in Committee this week: Monday, March 26 Senate Judiciary Committee at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 1 HB2093 Barry Goldwater range; concurrent jurisdiction (Nelson, Blendu: JP Weiers) amends state law concerning jurisdiction to enhance the ability of the federal law officers to manage public use of the Goldwater Range more safely. It allows them to enforce things like the Arizona Native Plant Law and take enforcement action to protect the land. SUPPORT. HB2338 initiative and referendum; disclosure (Adams: Anderson, Crandall) requires a political committee to disclose its major funding sources at the bottom of the initiative or referendum petition sheet. This sets up another double standard for citizen initiatives or referenda. Legislative referrals are not required to include the major funding from various lobbying interests that pushed them through the legislature nor do candidate petitions require that they include their major funders on the petitions. Ballot measures already must disclose major funding sources on campaign materials. It goes on to require that signature gatherers be paid at a flat hourly rate and that they be employees. Why can’t these businesses hire independent contractors like other businesses? This aspect will put the initiative process more in the hands of wealthy interests. It states that the initiative measure must indicate on the ballot whether the signatures were primarily gathered by volunteers or paid gatherers. Considering the number of signatures that is now required and all the barriers for gathering signatures (many places do not allow it), there are few if any initiative campaigns get the majority of signatures with volunteers. This, along with the other measures in this bill, creates more technical requirements that will likely result in more citizen measures being thrown out. We oppose measures that erect impediments to citizen initiatives without solving any real problems. OPPOSE. HB2690 clean elections; amendments (Reagan, Boone, Kirkpatrick, et al.) contains a number of amendments to the Clean Elections Act, most of which help the act operate more effectively. It allows the Citizens Clean Elections Commission to adopt rules after considering public comments during the 60-day comment period. It raises the amount of money available for statewide clean elections candidates and also allows those that do not participate to accept higher contributions. We are fine with it. House Committee on Homeland Security and Property Rights at 1:30 p.m. in House Hearing Room 1 SB1004 deferred compensation programs; technical correction (Bee) will have a strike everything amendment on local vested subdivision rights. Apparently it is not quite easy enough for the developers to jam through a subdivision. Now they want to vest them even earlier in the process which means if the community asks for changes or has other needs over time, the taxpayers will have to pay them off. The vested subdivision plat confers on the developers the right to undertake and complete the development and use of the property under the terms and conditions of the vested plat. OPPOSE. Senate Government Committee at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 3 HB2593 homeowners associations; solar panels (Ch Campbell, Gallardo, Kirkpatrick, et al.) states that homeowners associations can't prohibit solar panels, but they can have reasonable restrictions on placement of them provided the restrictions do not impair the function, unreasonably restrict the use, or adversely affect the cost or efficiency of the device. It provides for attorneys’ fees for the prevailing party in litigation relating to this. There will be an amendment to tighten this up a bit. SUPPORT. HB2638 local energy plans (Cajero Bedford, Bradley, Mason, et al.) adds an energy element to cities’ general plans and counties’ comprehensive plans to encourage and reward efficient use of energy. SUPPORT. Tuesday, March 27 Senate Transportation Committee at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 3 Barbara Ann Lundstrom to the State Transportation Board HB2153 ADOT hearings (Biggs) will have a strike everything on regional area road fund reimbursement. HB2682 blue ribbon transportation committee (Biggs) establishes a committee made up entirely of legislators to make recommendations on transportation for the next legislative session. It looks like it may have that amendment to privatize road building more and make it even less accountable to the public. OPPOSE. House Counties, Municipalities & Military Affairs Committee at 1:30 p.m. in House Hearing Room 5 SB1313 state trust lands; planning (Flake) narrows the provisions the urban land planning oversight committee can consider regarding the final conceptual land use plans and the final five year state trust land disposition plans. WATCH. Senate Appropriations Committee at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 109 HB2228 NOW: highway expansion fund; capital projects (McClure, Bee: Nelson) sets aside the sum of $10,000,000 in the Highway Expansion and Extension Loan Program fund for eligible transit capital projects in municipalities with a population of fifty thousand persons or less. Wednesday, March 28 Senate Commerce and Economic Development Committee at 9:00 a.m. in Senate Hearing Room 3 HB2022 PSPRS; deferred retirement; technical correction (McClure) will have a vested rights strike everything on it. It is not posted, but I cannot think it is good. Senate Finance Committee at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 1 HB2491 solar energy tax credit; application (Mason, Boone: Anderson, et al.) is merely a technical correction bill to clarify the commercial solar energy tax credit program established last year, so the credit can be claimed by a third party who finances the solar installation. This will help to support installation of more solar on state buildings, schools, etc. SUPPORT. House Environment Committee at 1:30 p.m. in House Hearing Room 5 SB1552 air quality program (Allen, Huppenthal) includes very limited provisions to improve air quality including some minimal regulation of leaf blowers, alternative work hours, and no burn expansion provisions. We support adding an amendment that will protect public health by expanding the nonattainment area, requiring developers to do more to limit dust via emissions impact fees, requiring agriculture to limit tilling on bad air days, and placing further limitations on leaf blowers; as well as measures limiting ozone pollution. SUPPORT. Senate Natural Resources and Rural Affairs Committee at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 109 Confirmation of Jennifer Martin to the Arizona Game and Fish Commission. She is the one who was not confirmed last session because they had concerns about her being a young woman with a young child. Let’s hope there is no replay on that. Confirmation of Arlan Colton to the State Parks Board HB2019 county insurance; technical correction (McClure) will have a strike everything amendment on the Upper San Pedro water district. Who knows what will be in it. It is changing hourly. The bill must protect the flows in the San Pedro River to be worth anything at all. WATCH. HB2312 state air quality rules; hearing (Barnes) will have a striker on state trust land conservation lands. It is not yet posted. HB2484 well impacts; contamination (Mason, Adams, Bradley, et al.) requires the Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) to review an application to drill a new well to determine if the well is likely to cause contaminated groundwater to migrate to another existing well. If the Director determines that contaminated groundwater is likely to migrate to another well, permission to drill the well will be denied. SUPPORT. HB2491 solar energy tax credit; application (Mason, Boone: Anderson, et al.) See above. HB2496 NOW: schools; energy and water efficiency (Mason, J. Burns, Aboud, et al.) creates an energy and water savings accounting mechanism which allows schools to use the cost savings in maintenance and operations portion of their budgets to pay for capital investments in energy or water saving measures. This provides an opportunity for schools to invest in cost-effective measures that save money, energy, and water over time. It also allows them to retain a portion of the cost savings as a further incentive for being more efficient. SUPPORT. HB2692 water supply development revolving fund (Mason, Ableser, Saradnik, et al.) establishes a water development revolving fund for the purpose of providing financial assistance to water providers for water supply development. It allows the use of the fund to water providers who are located within a county or municipality that has adopted the adequacy requirements for new subdivisions in HB2693 or that is within an active management area or to a water provider that has been designated as having an adequate water supply, and it contains a conditional enactment provision relative to the water adequacy bill. This bill is another mechanism for fueling urban, suburban, and rural sprawl. It does not provide any protections for stream or river flows and therefore could be used by Prescott or Prescott Valley to pipe from the Big Chino and dry up the upper portion of the Verde River. OPPOSE. HCM2008 urge protection; Kofa herd (JP Weiers, Nelson, Aguirre, et al) is a “postcard” to congress asking them to affirm that Game and Fish should be able to kill mountain lions in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. They are trying to once again blame the decline in bighorn sheep on lions, despite no evidence to support that. While these postcards do not change law, it is a bad idea to just let this inaccurate information stand. OPPOSE. HCR2039 NOW: state trust lands; public use (Nelson) refers to the ballot a constitutional amendment which represents an attempt by various interests to try and conserve some of the urban state trust lands, including lands in Scottsdale, Pima County, Coconino County, etc. It includes about 195,000 acres, all of which would have to be bought at true value, but without auction. This measure would not be comprehensive reform or address rural lands, but could conserve the urban state trust lands that communities have been trying to protect. The pre-1968 easements can be conveyed without the trust receiving any compensation per this measure. New rights-of-way could also be conveyed without auction. Some of the proponents of the bill are attempting to work out concerns with the Arizona Education Association. We are monitoring this and trying to ensure that the bill is not a Christmas tree of bad ideas for the Trust and that it actually conserves some land. Thursday, March 29 Senate Government Committee will meet after adjournment of other committees in Senate Hearing Room 1 HB2593 homeowners associations; solar panels (Ch Campbell, Gallardo, Kirkpatrick, et al.) See Monday. HB2638 local energy plans (Cajero Bedford, Bradley, Mason, et al.) See Monday. For more information on bills we are tracking, go to http://arizona.sierraclub.org/political_action/tracker/. To email legislators go to http://www.azleg.gov/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.gov.
Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633 |