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| Political Action |
Legislative Updates 2008Sierra Club 2008 Legislative Update #12March 28, 2008 Hello Conservation Friends! Support Earth Hour 2008 and turn out the lights from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 29, 2008. Save energy for an hour - it's a start - and enjoy the dark skies. There was a bit of good news at the Legislature this week. HB2766 omnibus energy act of 2008 (Mason, Ch Campbell, McClure, et al.), a bill which promotes energy efficiency and clean renewable energy in Arizona, passed the House 43-13-4. HCR2037 constitutional rights; game and fish (JP Weiers, Adams, Barnes, et al), a measure that would have referred to the ballot a constitutional amendment that would have a significant and negative impact on wildlife and wildlife management in Arizona, was defeated in the House Committee of the Whole 27-28-5. While it is likely to be resurrected, it was encouraging to see legislators step up and reject it. In other good news, SB1167 had a strike everything on user fee; off-highway vehicles. This brings back HB2573 which was killed last week in the Senate Natural Resources and Rural Affairs Committee. This week, please call your House Members and ask them to oppose HCR2045 and to protect citizens' rights to the initiative process. HCR2045 county officers; elections; technical correction (Adams) has a strike everything amendment on initiative and referendum. It refers to the ballot yet another constitutional amendment that if approved would significantly restrict the right to refer legislation via the initiative process. It requires that the signatures for an initiative be turned into the Secretary of State on December 31 of the year before the election rather than four months prior to the election. This is done without reducing the required number of signatures, so will erect a huge barrier to referring measures by those without deep pockets. It also will mean the Legislature has even more of an opportunity to refer competing measures. It changes the voting requirements for amending a citizen initiative passed by the voters from a 3/4 vote to a 2/3 vote, 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. This would significantly weaken the Voter Protection Act, which was passed after years of frustration with the Legislature weakening measures passed by the people. It includes numerous other provisions as well. Also ask them to oppose HB2772 NOW: ground transfers; Coconino plateau (Mason) 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 or at least require additional monitoring. 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. To find your House members' contact information just click on HOUSE or paste this website into your browser http://www.azleg.gov/memberRoster.asp?Body=H or you can call (602) 926-4221 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 31 Senate Committee on Government at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 3 HB2154 county plans; major amendments (Paton) allows the county board of supervisors to refer a major amendment back to the planning and zoning commission for consideration at a public hearing and recommend any new proposed changes. I don't see a problem with this. MONITOR. HB2155 transfer of development rights (Paton) allows the transfer of development rights among municipalities and counties. For example, it would allow Pima County to transfer development rights to Tucson. This seems like an okay tool and could allow for some better planning and accommodate a way to protect sensitive lands. SUPPORT Tuesday, April 1 Senate Committee on Appropriations at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 109 JLBC Presentation - Proposed Budget Alternatives Presentation by state treasurer Dean Martin - General Fund Cash Flow and Spending Senate Committee on Transportation at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room3 HB2156 NOW: railroad projects; review (Paton, Pancrazi) requires railroads that are considering potential sites for a major rail project to notify the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) and requires ADOT to review the existing or proposed major rail project and hold at least one public hearing to record public comments. They need to evaluate the effects on air quality, water resources, historical sites, etc. This makes the case for why Arizona should have a state environmental policy act. SUPPORT. House Committee on Government at 1:30 p.m. in HHR4 SB1255 administrative rules oversight committee (Burns, Harper) 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. The entity is duplicative as there are many mechanisms for resolving issues with the rules currently. Already rules are reviewed by assistant attorneys general and must go through the Governor's Regulatory Review Council, where many of the entities who have issues with them can raise concerns, including concerns about the impacts on business. During a time of serious budget concerns and significant downsizing of government, we should not be adding another process that will just eat up more staff time and will duplicate processes that already exist for those who have concerns about rules. OPPOSE. 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. SB1288 NOW: local stormwater pollution prevention programs (Flake, Rios: Barnes) authorizes establishment of local pollutant discharge elimination system stormwater programs (county, town or agency of the state), collection of fees, and authorizes, but limits penalties for violations. It includes language that says the program can be no more stringent than the Clean Water Act and also any new ordinances or changes in ordinances can only comply with the “minimum requirements” of the Clean Water Act. This gives no flexibility to local communities to work to address local conditions that might require more protective standards. For example, many of our important washes and ephemeral waters have limited protection under the Clean Water Act. OPPOSE. Wednesday, April 2 House Committee on Natural Resources and Public Safety at 9:00 a.m. in HHR1 SB1438 NOW: mine inspector; abandoned mines; donations (Flake O'Halleran, Konopnicki, et al) allows the State Mine Inspector to accept in-kind donations, authorizes the use of inert material for the purpose of closing abandoned mines. They took out the used tire provision. WATCH. Senate Committee on Commerce and Economic Development at 10:00 a.m. in SHR3 HB2078 manufactured housing office; powers (Konopnicki) has a strike everything on public nuisance; limitations. Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Rural Affairs at 1:30 p.m. in SHR 109 HB2270 NOW: water supply; disclosure (Clark, Adams, Barnes, et al.) requires the Department of Real Estate and the Department of Water Resources to post water supplies on their websites. A person can request water supply information from a city, town or private water company it must be provided within three days of the request. SUPPORT. HB2280 emission testing; motorcycles; area A (JP Weiers: McLain, Nichols, et al) exempts motorcycles in Area A from emissions, provided that the Environmental Protection Agency allows the amendment to the State Implementation Plan. Apparently we are one of the few places to test them. You still have to wonder if it is good idea to exempt them. HB2333 county powers; outdoor fires (Mason) will have a strike everything on renewable energy; generation; manufacturing; classification which is not yet posted, but I expect it is the same as a bill that died in the House Rules Committee 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. SUPPORT. HB2425 underground storage tanks; energy act (Barnes, M. Garcia, Ableser, et al) provides additional regulation and disclosure relative to underground storage tanks in order to address leakage. SUPPORT HB2511 oil and gas; shut-in royalty (Konopnicki) makes modifications relative to oil and gas lease extension provisions if there are transportation barriers. WATCH. HB2666 aggregate mine reclamation law; exemption (Biggs) exempts sand and gravel pits which are intermittently used for specific governmental projects from aggregate mine regulatory and reclamation mandates. It is difficult to see why the bill is necessary or why someone doing government projects should get special consideration - one of the things that feeds into people's cynicism is government failing to follow its own laws. There is already a provision in the current law which allows the mine inspector to grant three subsequent five year extensions before any reclamation has to begin, so someone can delay fixing a problem for 15 years. See A.R.S. 27-1226. This additional exemption is unnecessary and provides just another loophole for avoiding reclamation and cleaning up a mess. There are already plenty of opportunities for delays and exemptions in our mining laws, they should not add another. OPPOSE. House Committee on Environment at 1:30 p.m. in House Hearing Room 5 SB1095 air quality; clean burning gas (Flake, Aguirre, Blendu) moves back the date so there are 30 additional days of the required cleaner burning gasoline in Area C (portion of Pinal County. This is a clean-up bill from last year - the date was wrong in the big air quality bill. SUPPORT. SB1384 Arizona emissions bank (Blendu) eliminates the sunset of the emissions bank. In the Senate, they stripped out the provision that would have included greenhouse gases. WATCH. Thursday, April 3 House Committee on Transportation at 9:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 3 SB1466 rest area privatization; state highways (Gould: Harper, Groe) allows the Arizona Department of Transportation privatize rest areas. Apparently, they can only do this to two rest areas in the state due to federal law. We don't need bigger, brighter, and more developed rest areas throughout the state. OPPOSE. SB1495 light rail performance audit (Gorman: Blendu, Gould, et al) requires a performance audit if it is not completed by January 1, 2009. Why not require this for freeways that are not completed on time? Or over budget? It is also redundant. OPPOSE. Here is an update on a few bills: HB2235 administrative rules oversight committee (DeSimone, Burns, Cheuvront, et al) was defeated in the Government Committee 3-3-1. It would have reestablished the Administrative Rules Oversight Committee (AROC), the same SB1255 above. HB2614 renewable energy valuation; expiration extension (Mason, Miranda, O'Halleran, et al) passed out of the House 54-6 and has been assigned to the Senate Finance Committee. 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 48-8-4 and has been assigned to the Senate Government Committee. 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. 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 passed out of the House 32-27-1 and has been assigned to Appropriations in the Senate. OPPOSE. Please ask your legislators to oppose this one too. 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.
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