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Legislative Updates 2009Sierra Club 2009 Legislative Update #4 “Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.” – James W. Frick February 6, 2009 Hi everyone! It was pretty clear from the budget passed early last Saturday that the Arizona Legislature’s priorities are not with environmental protection. In addition to previous cuts, they really hammered Arizona State Parks and at the last minute raided even more funds at the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. The Department of Water Resources and Land Department did not do all that well either. Obviously, there were a lot of important programs that were hit hard. Most disturbing for us was that for the first time ever, they took Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund dollars – to the tune of $4.9 million. We have worked very hard for the last 18 years to keep those dollars intact to fund state and local parks, protect natural areas, and preserve our history. To add insult to injury, the legislature raided everything else too, including funds that are not even there. This means the State Parks Department is considering closing up to eight parks. It is truly shameful. Here are a few examples of environmental hits in the budget. At State Parks they took more than $26 million including the following, among others:
At the Department of Environmental Quality, there were also substantial reductions, which the agency says it can absorb (perhaps in preparation for turning programs over to the Environmental Protection Agency). The reductions and fund raids included, among others, the following:
This week, please call your legislators and the governor and tell them you are disappointed in the severe cuts to environmental programs in the budget bill, especially those cuts at State Parks. Ask them to provide supplemental funding for Parks to keep the parks open and in good repair and tell them to ensure adequate funding in the Fiscal Year 2010 budget. Make sure they know you are outraged that they raided the Parks Heritage Fund. To find out how legislators voted on the budget, just click on SB1001 Senate or SB1001 House. If you cannot link to these, then feel free to call me and I will look it up for you. To contact the governor, call (602) 542-4331 or click on Governor Brewer and fill out the email form. To email your legislators or find their direct phone numbers, click on Legislators or paste http://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp into your browser. If you are not sure who your legislators are, please go to http://www.vote-smart.org 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) and ask them to connect you with your legislators. Don’t forget to R.S.V.P. for Environmental Day on Monday, March 2. The program will run from 10am – 1pm on the House Lawn. We have a great group of speakers to talk about the “State of Arizona’s Environment” plus groups will have tables with displays. Make appointments with your legislators for that day (we will help you do that, if you need assistance), plan to attend the program, and if you are representing a group, please let me know if you need a table or would like to include anything in the packets. Thanks. I look forward to seeing you. Here is what is happening this week: Monday, February 9, 2009 Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Infrastructure and the Public Debt at 1:30 p.m. in SHR 109 Presentation by the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the Arizona Water Institute House Committee on Natural Resources and Rural Affairs at 2:00 p.m. in House Hearing Room 4 HB2142 county water authority; Colorado river (McLain, Mason, Aguirre, et al) allows for use of Colorado River water in western Arizona for other uses. Currently it restricts the use to industrial MONITOR. HB2250 public trust lands; use permit (McLain, Pancrazi: Crandall, et al) allows the State Land Department to issue a permit for the use of public trust lands along the Colorado River without a public auction. This seems fine. HB2255 fertilizer fund; pesticide fund; uses (Jones, Pancrazi, Aguirre, et al) establishes the Plant Health Council and authorizes the Council to administer, invest and disperse monies in the Fertilizer Materials Fund and the Pesticide Fund, and to advise the director of the Department of Agriculture on pesticide issues and integrated pest management, among other things. The Council is made up of fertilizer and pesticide manufacturers and sellers, so this is another fox guarding the henhouse committee – like many other agriculture councils. OPPOSE. Tuesday, February 10, 2009 House Government Committee at 2:00 p.m. in House Hearing Room 4 HB2014 municipalities; exchange of real property (Konopnicki) permits cities and towns to exchange property outside their boundaries. Is this really a good idea? Shouldn’t they have to annex an area first? MONITOR. HB2088 minerals; land inventory; technical correction (Nichols) is a vehicle bill for later shenanigans. HB2253 publication of notices; websites (Jones, Antenori, Pancrazi, et al) allows for the publication of notices required by law to be posted on official county, city or town websites instead of in a newspaper. This will save dollars and resources, but will it cut off a segment of the population from accessing these notices? Wednesday, February 11, 2009 House Commerce Committee at 9:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 5 HB2258 consumer fireworks; novelties, sales (Biggs, Ableser, Quelland) will have a strike everything amendment on it, but will likely make sparklers and such legal in Arizona. Don’s we have enough fire hazards? Maybe they could use them near those big piles of waste tires. (Please note sarcasm here.) Thursday, February 12, 2009 House Committee on Water and Energy at 9:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 5 HB2329 solar energy; permit fees (Boone, Mason) establishes a maximum fee that can be charged for various solar facilities including solar hot water and solar photo voltaic. SUPPORT. HB2330 biodiesel fuel dispensers; labeling (Boone, Mason) requires labeling consistent with federal code. This seems like a common sense thing to do. HB2335 improvement districts; renewable energy (Mason) allows improvement districts to be formed in order to acquire, install, and improve energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements as well as for water conservation and water resource management improvements. These can include solar energy systems, rainwater harvesting equipment and systems, and gray water systems. Both this bill and the following bill will be worked on this week, so we will refrain from taking a position until we know what the outcome is. HB2336 community facilities districts; renewable energy (Mason) will have a strike everything amendment. At this point the bill is being worked on, so we are monitoring it. HB2352 aquifer protection permits; natural gas (Mason) exempts injection wells for natural gas storage from getting aquifer protection permits. The list of exemptions is far too long already. I see no justification for this. The aquifer protection permit program is intended to prevent pollution and be a protective program. All of these exemptions reverse that. OPPOSE. For more information on bills we are tracking, go to http://arizona.sierraclub.org/political_action/tracker/ . Thank you! Sandy Bahr
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2009 Legislative Updates Bill Tracker
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