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Legislative Updates 2008Sierra Club 2008 Legislative Update #11 “The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.” — Noam Chomsky March 21, 2008 Hello Conservation Friends! No good deed goes unpunished. After all of the work to come together on a bill that we think will help limit the negative impacts of off-road vehicles and provide better law enforcement, the Senate Natural Resources and Rural Affairs Committee killed the bill 3-3-1. It had already been double assigned to unfriendly committees by Senate President Tim Bee. Apparently he does not see the problem with off-road vehicles. Please take a moment and call his office and ask him to support efforts to protect sensitive public and private lands from off-road vehicles, to ensure better safety provisions especially for children, and to provide for better law enforcement. You can reach the Senate President at tbee@azleg.gov or (602) 926-5683. HB2573 off-highway vehicles; user fees (JP Weiers, Boone, Mason, et al.) established a user fee for off-road vehicles, increased funding for law enforcement, included important safety provisions, clarified where it is unlawful to drive off-road vehicles, and established a grant program. There were several improvements added to this year’s bill, which we think helped ensure responsible use of the grant dollars, including prohibiting their use to build new trails on sensitive lands. It also included mitigation and restoration provisions. It was a step in the right direction. We hope to see it revived. One of the many really ridiculous bills, SB1264 NOW: public rights-of-way; claims (Johnson), passed out of the Senate 18-11-1. Please thank the following senators for voting no: Aboud, Allen, Burton-Cahill, Cheuvront, Garcia, Hale, Landrum-Taylor, Miranda, O’Halleran, Rios, and Soltero. Senator McCune Davis was absent and the rest voted for this truly bad bill. You might let them know your disappointment as well. This bill asserts and claims rights-of-way across public lands acquired after the effective date of Revised Statute 2477. This relates back to an 1866 law known as "Revised Statute 2477" (RS 2477), which granted rights-of-way across public lands. The statute was repealed by Congress in 1976, when Congress enacted the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA). Some whacky entities have tried to use this repealed provision to claim roads that no longer exist, including a road through Grand Canyon National Park. This bill is likely to just create confusion rather than open up any roads, however, but it is a bad message, and could slow down efforts to protect our public lands from irresponsible off-road vehicle use and to protect resources by closing certain roads. Senator Johnson says this bill is needed because the Forest Service is closing 80 percent of the roads on the national forests and specifically has referenced the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. She is wrong about that. To find your senator’s contact information just click on Senators or you can call (602) 926-3559 or outside the Phoenix area 1-800-352-8404 and just ask to be connected to your senator’s office. Coming up this week: Monday, March 24 Senate Committee on Government at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 3 HB2235 administrative rules oversight committee (DeSimone, Burns, Cheuvront, et al) reestablishes the Administrative Rules Oversight Committee (AROC), a committee that has oversight on rules and consists of 10 legislators and a representative from the governor’s office. This committee was not an effective mechanism for addressing concerns when it existing previously and just adds more bureaucracy to an already cumbersome process. There were good reasons that Governor Hull vetoed the bill that would have kept the AROC and that no one has really missed it since. Senate Committee on Judiciary at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 1 HB2288 initiative and referendum amendments (Stump: Barton, Clark, et al) allows suspension of a political committee after failure to file three consecutive reports, makes it a class 1 misdemeanor to knowingly and falsely describe an initiative to get someone to sign it (not sure how they can enforce this), gives the Secretary of State’s office additional time to certify petitions and determine the total number of valid signatures, and allows the Secretary of State with the approval of the Attorney General to place an argument in the support or opposition category, irrespective of how it was submitted. This is to address people submitting arguments for the support of a measure that are really in opposition and vice versa. These are generally relatively minor requirements, but we need to keep an eye on it. WATCH. HB2364 election law amendments (Crandall, Reagan: Adams, et al) makes numerous changes to the election laws including requiring the Governor to call a special primary election for a vacancy in the U.S. House of Representatives and establish a date within 72 hours after an office has been officially declared vacant. The special primary must be held within 60 days it is currently 75 days. Candidates have 10 days to file primary petitions. Overall it tightens up timelines. MONITOR. Tuesday, March 25 Senate Committee on Appropriations at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 109 JLBC update and projection on Long-term Budget Projections House Committee on Counties, Municipalities & Military Affairs at 1:30 p.m. in HHR5 SB1180 state land department; sunset continuation (Flake) continues it to June 30, 2018. Wednesday, March 26 Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Rural Affairs at 1:30 p.m. in SHR 109 Presentation by Colonel John Bullington, Yuma Proving Ground Commander HB2332 falconry; captive bred exotic raptors (Mason) allows the possession and transportation of raptors for sport falconry by qualified persons without a sport falconry license provided the raptors are not listed pursuant to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. WATCH. HB2771 interstate water transfers (McLain) allows a fee for interstate transfer of water. MONITOR. Thursday, March 27 House Committee on Water and Agriculture at 9:30 a.m. in House Hearing Room 1 SB1120 navigable stream adjudication commission; continuation (Flake, Brown, J. Burns, et al) continues this commission through 2012. They are charged with determining navigability, at statehood, of all of Arizona’s rivers and streams. The state has tried repeatedly to give away to private interests all of the rivers except the Colorado. SB1168 department of agriculture omnibus act (Arzberger, Aguirre, Landrum Taylor, et al) changes to Department of Agriculture statutes including use of commercial fertilizer inspection fees and livestock seizure and sale. SB1180 state land department; sunset continuation (Flake) continues it to June 30, 2018. SB1181 Arizona beef council; sunset continuation (Flake) continues it to 2019. You have to ask is it really necessary. SB1289 flood protection districts; financing (Flake) establishes an assessment option to fund construction and repair of flood protection facilities. WATCH. SB1326 exempt wells; internal reference corrections (Flake, Aguirre, Arzberger, et al) is merely a technical correction. SB1373 poultry husbandry (Burns, Aguirre, Arzberger, et al) is an attempt to undercut efforts to better regulate this industry by establishing a special council. SB1380 drought emergency groundwater transfers (Arzberger, Hale, Miranda, et al) allows groundwater transfer outside a basin if there is a declared drought emergency. They do this bill nearly every year. Here is an update on a few bills: HB2613 renewable energy enterprise zones (I) (Mason, Prezelski, Miranda) has a strike everything amendment which places real and personal property used in generating electricity using renewable energy and the manufacturing of renewable energy equipment into property class six with a 5% assessment ratio. To qualify for this lower assessment ration a facility must generate at least two megawatts of electricity and have a grid connection to a public or private transmission system or the property must be used exclusively for the manufacturing equipment. It awaits action by the House Committee of the Whole. SUPPORT. HB2614 renewable energy valuation; expiration extension (Mason, Miranda, O’Halleran, et al) passed out of the House 54-6. It extends the date for the property tax incentive for the valuation of renewable energy equipment from 2011 to 2040. SUPPORT. HB2615 NOW: solar construction permits (Mason, Ableser, Reagan) passed out of the House Committee of the Whole. It specifies the standards municipalities and counties must adopt regarding permits for solar energy devices and creates the Local Government Solar Equipment Permit Process Improvement Study Committee. SUPPORT. HB2618 schools; energy savings loan fund (Mason, Allen) establishes the Energy and Water Savings Program and creates the Arizona Energy and Water Savings Loan Fund to be administered by the School Facilities Board. It appropriates an unspecified amount from the general fund for FY 2008-2009 which is why it still awaits action by the House Appropriations Committee. SUPPORT. HB2619 new schools; energy standards (Mason) requires projects that are built using the New School Facilities Fund to conform to standards established by the School Facilities Board for energy and water performance. It requires the Schools Facilities Board to consider standards established by the United States Green Building Council. It awaits action by the House Rules Committee. SUPPORT. HB2766 omnibus energy act of 2008 (Mason, Ch Campbell, McClure, et al.) will likely go to the House Floor early next week. We have not seen the final Floor amendment, but expect it to further weaken the bill including to make the new building construction standards weaker. While we are extremely disappointed in how they have weakened key provisions, the school and public building programs are still worth supporting in the bill. It includes a renewable energy standard and requires that 15% of the electricity come from renewable by 2025 (not all utilities including Salt River Project are regulated by the Arizona Corporation Commission) and a limited net metering provision. Unfortunately, the definition of renewable was completely removed, so this provision is unlikely to have any real impact. It establishes reporting requirements for energy efficiency relative to new construction and includes voluntary goals there as well. It requires school districts to reduce their energy consumption and requires that school districts, universities and state agencies purchase 10 % of their energy from renewable and nonpolluting energy sources. The bill gives schools flexibility to use the dollars they save on utilities to pay for capital investments that would help save energy. HB2766 requires that the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality in cooperation with the Department of Weights and Measures conduct a study on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fuels. It includes other provisions as well. SUPPORT. HB2772 groundwater transfers; drought emergency (Mason) had a strike everything ground transfers; Coconino plateau has not yet advanced through Rules. They are working on amendment with the Verde Valley mayors. HB2772 was introduced because the Town of Williams drilled two wells in the Verde Valley Sub-basin rather than the Coconino Plateau Basin apparently no one can read a map and they did not use GPS. Under current law, they could not transfer that water to the town. This bill ratifies this mistake and allows them to transfer the water. That is a bad idea and a truly bad precedent. We would like to see, at a minimum, the bill amended to say that this transfer can only occur provided that it is demonstrated that there will be no harm to the Verde River. We cannot rely on Salt River Project alone to protect the Verde it belongs to all of us and to future generations. The Legislature should reject this bill as well. OPPOSE. HCR2037 constitutional rights; game and fish (JP Weiers, Adams, Barnes, et al) will likely go to the House Floor this coming week as it passed out of Rules and advanced through the respective caucuses. It refers to the ballot a constitutional amendment that will have a significant and negative impact on wildlife and wildlife management in Arizona. At a minimum, this proposal would create inconsistent provisions regarding initiative rights within the Arizona Constitution. OPPOSE. Please continue to ask legislators to oppose this power grab. HCR2044 voter-protection; temporary budgetary suspension (Pearce, Barnes, Biggs, et al) refers to the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the legislature to reduce appropriations for measures approved by the voters in any year where there was a projected budget deficit. This would eviscerate the Voter Protection Act. It has not yet advanced to the Floor. OPPOSE. Please ask your legislators to oppose this one too. HCR2045 county officers; elections; technical correction (Adams) had a strike everything amendment on initiative and referendum. It refers to the ballot yet another constitutional amendment that provides for circulating an initiative based on a short paragraph description and requires that the signatures for it be turned into the Secretary of State on December 31 of the year before the election. It requires someone proposing an initiative to submit it to the Legislature for consideration. The Legislature can amend and adopt language as if it were any other bill or do nothing and it goes to the ballot. It changes the voting requirements from a 3/4 vote to a 2/3 vote relative to the Voter Protection Act, says it must further the intent of the people versus further the purposes and it allows changes to “correct problems.” You can only guess what the legislature might see as a problem. It mandates any constitutional amendment passed by the voters be resubmitted to the ballot after eight years. The bill went through Rules and Caucus so will likely show up on the House Floor soon too. OPPOSE. Please ask your legislators to oppose this measure too. HCR2069 state budget; continuation (Murphy: Anderson, Pearce, et al) is yet another proposed constitutional amendment that says that the current budget continues if a new budget has not been enacted by June 30 and requires the agency to reduce its budget if the dollars are inadequate. This is another really ridiculous proposal that would make the budget even more of a nightmare. OPPOSE. Please ask your legislators to oppose it. Thank you for taking action on these important issues! 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 |