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Legislative Updates 2009Sierra Club 2009 Legislative Update #7 “As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.” - Benjamin Franklin February 27, 2009 Hi all! I look forward to seeing many of you at Environmental Day on Monday. We will be on the House Lawn from 10am- 1pm. We encourage you to meet with legislators and also to attend a committee hearing in the afternoon. Key issues to lobby are protection of Arizona’s water, promoting energy efficiency and renewables, and protecting environmental programs in the budget, including the Heritage Fund, State Parks operating dollars, and funds that protect our air, water, land, and wildlife. This week, please call House Members and ask them to oppose the following bills: HB2088 NOW: public conservation monies; transfer; parks (Nichols) diverts $20 million from the Public Conservation Account in the Land Conservation Fund established by the voters in 1998 when they approved the Growing Smarter Act referred to the ballot by the Arizona Legislature. The dollars are diverted to a variety of purposes – everything from water banking to parks to workshops. This amendment is clearly unconstitutional as it in no way furthers the purposes of the Growing Smarter measure that went before the voters in 1998. By diverting dollars from this fund, the Legislature hurts both conservation efforts and education – dollars from the Land Conservation Fund go into the Trust to benefit the Trust beneficiaries. The primary beneficiary is public education. Providing adequate funding for parks and other programs is important, but this is not the appropriate way to do so. The best avenue is to restore those funds directly and to establish a more stable funding source for our state parks. The voters approved the Voter Protection Act, because they were fed up with the Legislature undercutting, repealing, and diverting dollars from voter-approved measures. This bill demonstrates why it is needed more than ever. HB2240 rule making; state agencies; moratorium (Tobin) puts a moratorium on any rule making until June 30, 2010, if the rule would have any additional costs associated with it for other agencies or for anyone else. There are many rules that might have an additional cost up front, but save us money later, plus many that have a minimal cost associated with them but have enormous benefits. Prevention is cheaper than trying to clean up or fix things after the fact – consider groundwater contamination, for example. While there is an exemption in the bill for rules that are aimed at preventing an imminent threat to public health and safety, it does not address general threats to public health and safety. Considering the poor air quality in several of urban areas, should we really wait to clean it up? Considering the importance of water in our arid state, shouldn’t we do everything, and as soon as possible, to ensure that it is protected? Please oppose this ill-conceived legislation. HB2401 administrative rules oversight committee (Williams, Barnes, Burns, 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 an ineffective mechanism for addressing concerns about rules when it existed previously and merely adds more bureaucracy to an already cumbersome process. There were good reasons that Governor Hull vetoed a bill to keep the AROC around – no one has really missed it since. Governor Napolitano vetoed an identical bill last session. The entity is duplicative as there are many mechanisms for resolving issues with the rules currently. Rules are reviewed by assistant attorneys general for compliance with the laws and must go through the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council. 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. HB2235 game and fish commissioner; appointment (JP Weiers, Gowan, Montenegro, et al.) was not heard this week and is not on next week’s agenda. We are not sure what they are planning to do with it, but if it just went away, that would be wonderful. This is the bill that requires appointees to the Game and Fish Commission to have a hunting license. Monday, March 2, 2009 Environmental Day at the Capitol on the House Lawn, 10am-1pm House Committee on Ways and Means at 2:00 p.m. in House Hearing Room 1 HB2368 property valuation; equalization calendar (Murphy, Chabin: Biggs, et al) has a strike everything amendment on solar generation; property valuation that values the property and improvements used primarily for solar electric generating purposes at the same value as agricultural property. It must specifically be for generation of electricity from solar light or heat and generate at least 100 megawatt hours per year. This is geared toward large solar facilities; it may help encourage the use of agricultural lands rather than undisturbed desert. SUPPORT. HB2584 national park support districts II (Konopnicki, Mason, Tobin, et al) allows a national park support district to be established in a community that is entirely located within ten miles of the exterior boundaries of a national park or a national monument and at least three miles outside the exterior boundaries of any incorporated city or town in existence at the time of establishment. This is another of the Tusayan bills and I expect is aimed at promoting development, in light of the failure of the previous efforts to incorporate. Forming a district requires petition signatures and a vote. House Committee on Natural Resources and Rural Affairs at 2:00 p.m. in House Hearing Room 4 HB2064 wildlife; guides; wasted meat (Konopnicki) allows the Game and Fish Commission to suspend a license for up to five years for wasting of game meat. It adds in a definition of wildlife guide. This is fine. HB2157 wildlife; aquatic invasive species (McLain, Goodale, Jones, et al) allows the Game and Fish Department to establish a program for limiting the introduction of nonnative invasive aquatic species such as the Quagga Mussel. This is a good idea. SUPPORT. HB2181 dust control practices; technical correction (Konopnicki) will have a strike-everything on agricultural best management practices; dairies. The striker adds two people the agricultural best management practices committee – someone representing a cattle feedlot and someone representing a dairy. It directs them to establish best management practices for reducing dust. These best management practices are unenforceable, generally speaking, but the state has trouble requiring anything of agriculture. I don’t think it makes things any worse than they are. HB2278 technical correction; state trust lands (Jones) has a strike everything on tires; abandoned mines that allows waste tires to be used to fill abandoned mines. This is a recycled bad idea from last year. Tires are flammable and create a fire hazard, at a minimum. We don’t even allow them in landfills. OPPOSE. HB2419 special license plates; maintenance (Gowan) will have a strike everything amendment on mass appraisal guidelines; state land. The striker requires the land department to notify in writing all lessees, permittees and right-of-way grantees currently occupying state land for the use to which the mass appraisal would apply and solicit comments from the affected parties. We are evaluating this bill. Should the beneficiaries be notified? HCR2030 initiative and referendum; voter approval (Stevens, Gowan: Antenori, et al) has a strike everything on Arizona’s water protection. This is not about protecting water and in fact is contrary to protecting Arizona’s rivers, streams, and washes. It sends a message to congress opposing the Clean Water Restoration Act, a measure that would help ensure that the original intent of the Clean Water Act is clear and that Arizona’s rivers and streams continue to have protection under the act. Without it, there is a great deal of fuzziness on whether or not streams that do not run year-round have the kinds of protections they need. OPPOSE. House Committee on Education at 2:00 p.m. in House Hearing Room 3 HB2332 schools; energy contracts (Boone) requires the state board of education to adopt rules for energy performance contracts and renewable energy power purchase contracts to purchase energy saving and renewable energy measures. It allows schools to establish an energy and water savings account that consists of a designated pool of capital investment monies to fund energy or water saving projects in school facilities. This bill will help schools save energy, water, and money. SUPPORT. Tuesday, March 3, 2009 House Committee on the Environment at 2:00 p.m. in House Hearing Room 5 HB2467 western climate initiative; prohibition (Biggs) prohibits the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality from participating in the Western Climate Initiative (WCI). The WCI was formed in February 2007 by Governor Napolitano and the governors of California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington. The purpose of the WCI is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through regional strategies that address climate change. Do we have to oppose anything positive or good happening in Arizona? OPPOSE. House Government Committee at 2:00 p.m. in House Hearing Room 4 HB2139 clean elections; qualifying period (Ch. Campbell, Sinema: Biggs, et al) shortens the Clean Elections qualifying period by 15 days. 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, combined heat and power, rainwater harvesting equipment and systems, and gray water systems. SUPPORT. HB2336 community facilities districts; renewable energy (Mason) has a strike everything amendment on county renewable energy incentive districts. It authorizes county boards of supervisors to designate renewable energy incentive districts in any unincorporated area of the counties, provided the areas consist of vacant or underused parcels, or other property the board deems suitable for renewable energy equipment, and are the appropriate size for the construction and operation of renewable energy equipment. SUPPORT. HB2587 petition circulators; signature payment prohibited (Lopes, Young Wright, Fleming, et al) prohibits payment by the signature for petition circulators. This could help to limit the incentive for people to obtain fraudulent signatures. SUPPORT. Wednesday, March 4, 2009 House Committee on Military Affairs and Public Safety at 9:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 3 HB2128 off-highway vehicles; technical correction (JP Weiers: Seel) is clearly a vehicle for another bill, but nothing is posted yet. We will keep an eye on it. House Committee on Commerce at 9:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 5 HB2247 home sales; water supply disclosure (Ableser, Barnes, M. Garcia, et al) requires a subdivider who sells one or more lots in a subdivision located outside of an active management area to record a document that contains a statement of water adequacy or inadequacy for that subdivision. SUPPORT. Thursday, March 5, 2009 House Committee on Water and Energy at 9:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 5 HB2337 energy standards; buildings; contracting (Mason, Ableser, Ch Campbell, et al) requires reporting on energy efficient construction in cities and counties, allows schools to use dollars saved on energy to invest those dollars in greater energy saving and renewable energy devices, and allows establishment of an energy savings account for schools, and requires that schools, universities and state buildings get 10 percent of their energy from clean renewable resources by 2015. It will have a strike-everything amendment on it. SUPPORT. HB2623 legislative authority; renewable energy (Mason) will have a strike everything amendment on energy metering. The amendment is not yet posted. The underlying bill is terrible and would define nuclear power as renewable, plus undercut the authority of the Arizona Corporation Commission to implement renewable energy policies. For more information on bills we are tracking, go to http://arizona.sierraclub.org/political_action/tracker/ . Thank you!
Sandy Bahr |
2009 Legislative Updates Bill Tracker
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