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Legislative Updates 2007

Sierra Club 2007 Legislative Update #20

“Although denying that we have a special position in the natural world might seem becomingly modest in the eye of eternity, it might also be used as an excuse for evading our responsibilities. The fact is that no species has ever had such wholesale control over everything on earth, living or dead, as we now have. That lays upon us, whether we like it or not, an awesome responsibility. In our hands now lies not only our own future, but that of all living creatures with whom we share the earth.”    - David Attenborough, "Life On Earth"

May 18, 2007

Hello Conservation Friends!  Today is Endangered Species Day.  Please take action to protect wildlife habitat, to limit climate change, and to better inform your friends, family, and neighbors about the many threats to plants and animals.

Speaking of threats to endangered species, the Arizona Legislature is still in session.  The Senate passed a budget that is generally okay on environmental programs, but could be better.  They still rob Peter to pay Paul when it comes to State Parks, but they do give some additional dollars to the water protection fund and provide some funding for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to deal with chromium as well as with border inspections.  The House did not pass its budget, but will reconsider it on Tuesday.  That budget is generally terrible.  We would like to see a couple of energy efficiency measures that are in the House budget included in the Senate budget, however -- the grant program for existing schools at about $4 million and the Combined Heat and Power tax credits at $1 million.

This week, please call or email (calls are better, if you can) your Arizona House Members and ask them to vote no on HB2692 water supply development revolving fund (Mason, Ableser, Saradnik, et al.)  It passed the Senate and has gone back to the House for a Final Read.  It establishes a 13 member Water Supply Development Fund Committee and a water development revolving fund for the purpose of providing financial assistance to water providers for water supply development.  It allows the fund to be used by water providers who are located within a county or municipality that has adopted the adequacy requirements for new subdivisions in SB1575 or that is within an active management area.

This bill is another mechanism for fueling unsustainable urban, suburban, and rural sprawl that depletes and dries up rivers and streams.  HB2692 does not require that entities that receive these funds provide any protection for stream or river flows.  The grants could be used by Prescott or Prescott Valley to pipe from the Big Chino and dry up the upper portion of the Verde River. 

To contact your Arizona House Members, please go to http://www.azleg.gov/memberRoster.asp?Body=H.  In the Phoenix area call (602) 926-4221-House.  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. 

Please continue calling or emailing all of your Arizona legislators and ask them to support clean air measures.  SB1552 air quality program (Allen, Huppenthal) should go to conference committee for additional amendments soon.  Ask legislators to make it as strong as possible.  A clean air program should require:

• An indirect source review program for development.  New development contributes to the air-pollution problems by increasing both the number of vehicles and the vehicle miles traveled.  Instead of focusing only on the pollution caused by construction activities, indirect source review addresses the pollution caused by the resulting use.  Developers are asked to develop onsite measures to mitigate the pollution generated by the completed development.  This program would encourage bicycle paths and pedestrian friendly development, mixed land use, increased energy efficiency, and accommodations for mass transit.  If the on-site mitigation measures for a particular development do not achieve the emissions reductions required, then the developer has to mitigate by paying an off-site fee. This fee reduces emissions by funding clean-air projects.

• Provide funding for more mass transit statewide.  Additional roads and freeways will give us more bad air.

• Require cleaner burning gasoline statewide, but at a minimum in Pinal County.  This will help to significantly reduce ozone pollution as well as emissions of hazardous air pollutants.

• Require no till days for agriculture when there is a high pollution day. 

• Establish a ban on leaf blowers in Maricopa County, especially on high pollution days. 

• Include a requirement for a cumulative impacts analysis to address issues with sand and gravel operations.

• Include phased grading that limits the amount of desert they can bulldoze all at once.

Right now they are considering including requiring a dust coordinator for construction sites, a dust training program, cleaner burning gasoline in parts of Pinal County, and more Best Management Practices (BMPs) for agriculture.  These BMPs are a joke and are unenforceable.  The other measures will likely make a difference, however.  We should oppose all efforts to allow backsliding relative to enforcement.  This is something the industry people are trying to get in the bill.

To contact your representatives, see above, for senators go to http://azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp?Body=S .  In the Phoenix area call (602) 926-3559 ­Senate.  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. 

Here are a few bill updates:

HB2443 NOW: user fee; off-highway vehicles (JP Weiers) still awaits a reconsideration vote.  It establishes a user fee for off-road vehicles.  We would like to see the dollars for these grants targeted to restoration and only for trails in areas that are currently used and appropriate. 

HB2638 local energy plans (Cajero Bedford, Bradley, Mason, et al.) awaits a Third Read in the Senate.  It adds an energy element to city and county plans to encourage and reward efficient use of energy.  SUPPORT.

HB2693 water adequacy provisions (Mason, Ableser, Saradnik, et al.) and SB1575 water adequacy amendments (Arzberger, Aguirre, Landrum Taylor, et al.) await final action in the House.  These bills authorize cities and counties outside of active management areas to adopt by a unanimous vote an ordinance requiring a determination of water adequacy from the Arizona Department of Water Resources before a subdivision may be approved.  NEUTRAL.

HCR2039 NOW: state trust lands; public use (Nelson) still awaits action by Senate Rules and may be dead unless there is some agreement with the Arizona Education Association and the Governor’s office.  HCR2039 refers to the ballot a constitutional amendment to conserve some of the urban state trust lands.  It includes about 190,000 acres, which would have to be bought at true value (appraised value), but without auction. 

HB2312 state air quality rules; hearing (Barnes) also awaits action in Rules.  The strike everything amendment on state trust land conservation lands moves the specific lands addressed in HCR2039 into session law.

SB1254 NOW: real property; signage; solar devices (Leff) states that homeowners associations can't prohibit solar panels, but they can have reasonable restrictions on placement of them provided the restrictions do not block the installation, impair the function, 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. It awaits final action by both the houses.  SUPPORT.

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.  

All 2007 Legislative Updates

Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633