Share your Priorities at the Mayor's Climate Action and Adaptation Budget Town Hall and Survey

This Saturday, March 20th at 10:30am is the Mayor's Climate Action and Adaptation Budget Town Hall.

Join us and share your priorities for climate action and adaptation.

Link to register:  http://bit.ly/3bHDZCk   

Another way to share your priorities...

The City of Tucson is seeking input on priorities for both city government and community-wide climate and environmental sustainability actions. Please, fill out the following survey. 

City of Tucson's Climate Action and Adaptation Plan Community Survey

Request to Speak on Bills that Hurt the Environment

This week our Arizona Legislators have proposed several bills that can hurt our environment or our ability to advocate for it.

One tool that can help us protect our environment is repealing or rewriting zoning laws that allow anyone to sell their land even if it hurts the neighborhood or the environment. I believe SB1409 zoning ordinances; property rights; cost will make it harder for cities to pass laws that protect their citizens from bad development and encourage unnecessary development.

SB1531 petition signatures is just another bill to make it harder for us to pursue citizens' initiatives - including those that would protect the environment. In our current political reality it is almost impossible to get a 2/3 vote. 

HB2309 violent; disorderly assembly; public order will increase penalties related to a "violent or disorderly assembly." Who gets to decide that? If someone determines that a protest you attended is disorderly you can be charged with a class 6 felony and end up in jail for a minimum of 6 months with no flexibility in sentencing. (Did we learn nothing from the "three strikes" laws?) One of the founding principles of our country is freedom of speech and the ability to protest this kind of tyranny.  

 

There are also several bills that weaken our ability to vote and can impact our ability to pass bills that protect our environment. If you would like to weigh in on them as well, you can find them on this blog.

Please, weigh in on the following bills being heard in committee this week before they go to a vote.

If you had an account with RTS previously, it is still active. If you do not have an account, you can set one up through Civic Engagement Beyond Voting. (Someone will have to help you activate it as it requires going to the Capitol.)

Coming Up This Week at the Arizona Legislature Monday, March 15th House Committee on Land, Agriculture, & Rural Affairs at 2:00 PM SB1384 state parks; lottery; heritage fund (Shope) appropriates $3 million from the state lottery funds to the Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund for local parks, trails, and protection of historic and cultural resources. We would love to see the full $10 million included, however. SUPPORT. SB1448 Arizona department of agriculture; continuation (Kerr: Gowan, Shope) will have a S/E: agricultural operations; nuisance; costs; damages that is a slightly different version of the agricultural nuisance bills, HB2372 and SB1224. This version would have a chilling effect on any nuisance actions by small farmers or property owners against these big concentrated animal feeding operations by giving further deference to these facilities and forcing a plaintiff to risk having to pay attorneys' fees. OPPOSE.  Wednesday, March 17th House Committee on Government & Elections at 9:00 AM SB1409 zoning ordinances; property rights; costs (Petersen) requires cities to consider impacts on the costs of housing before adopting any zoning ordinance or zoning ordinance text amendment. While not as bad as it was, it is still intended to limit protective actions by the cities. OPPOSE. SB1531 petition signatures; description; invalidity (Mesnard: Leach) voids the signature of any initiative or referendum petition signer that signs the petition without either hearing or reading the initiative or referendum description printed on the petition. This is another ridiculous requirement. What if you actually had read the measure? Why should you have to read or hear the description? It also says the circulator has to cross out a signature if they think the person did not read or listen to the description. OPPOSE. Senate Committee on Finance at 10:00 AM HB2714 environmental technology; biomass; forestry (Nutt) allows a company to qualify for the Arizona Commerce Authority's Environmental Technology Assistance Program if it locates or makes additional capital investment in a facility that processes biomass and forestry industry products. This is a subsidy for biomass, which is not carbon neutral, pollutes, and does not focus on forest health. OPPOSE. Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water at 2:00 PM  HCM2003 Colorado River; urging augmentation (Griffin) indirectly encourages the feds to operate the Yuma Desalination Plant, a plant that is old and inefficient. They have no effective means of dealing with the brine and operation of this would redirect water from the Cienega de Santa Clara. OPPOSE. HCM2004 floodwater harvesting; study; urging Congress (Dunn: Barton, Biasiucci, et al.) asks the feds to fund a study to build a dam and pipeline to redirect water from the Mississippi to Arizona. They forgot to mention build power plants to pump it uphill. This is ridiculous. It would be unbelievably expensive to pump water uphill for that distance and build a pipeline. The cost of the Central Arizona Project would pale in comparison. Why not ask the government to invest those dollars in conservation and living within our means? It is much cheaper and makes a lot more sense. OPPOSE.  House Committee on Transportation at 2:00 PM SB1345 neighborhood electric shuttles (Shope) includes requirements, safety standards and operating restrictions for neighborhood electric shuttles. This seems like a good idea. SUPPORT. Thursday, March 18th  Senate Committee on Judiciary at 9:00 AM HB2309 violent; disorderly assembly; public order (Roberts: Barton, Biasiucci, et al) defines a violent and disorderly assembly as when a gathering of seven or more people, with the intent of engaging in a riot, causes damage to property or injures another person; makes participating in a disorderly assembly a class 6 felony; and targets protesters by increasing the penalties of lower level offenses to a felony if part of a gathering. This is clearly targeting the movement for Black Lives and people of color. OPPOSE.

Request to Speak Actions: Safeguard our rights as Arizonans

Apparently some Arizona legislators think that they are the only ones entitled to vote since they keep proposing bills to limit our ability to vote or exercise our constitutional right to enact citizens initiatives or even protest their actions. Please, speak up on RTS to protect our rights in our democracy.

You can weigh in on the following bills being heard in committee this week before they go to a vote.

If you had an account with RTS previously, it is still active. If you do not have an account, you can set one up through Civic Engagement Beyond Voting.  (Someone will have to help you activate it as it requires going to the Capitol.)  



Monday, March 15th

Senate Committee on Government at 2:00 PM

HB2569 elections; private funding; prohibition (Hoffman: Barton, Biasiucci, et al) prohibits the state or other public bodies from utilizing any private dollars to help conduct or administer elections. This would severely hamstring the state and counties as they receive private grants and in-kind support to fund election work as the legislature does not adequately fund it. OPPOSE.

HCR2023 elections; state authority; infringement; opposition (Hoffman: Barton, Biasiucci, et al) says the AZ Legislature opposes the federal government interfering with the legislature's authority over elections and urges Congress to oppose HR1, a bill that would limit voter suppression and provide for automatic voter registration for federal elections, prohibit improper voter list purges, including based on not voting in a recent election, and prohibit requiring additional identification (beyond a signature) when voting by mail. OPPOSE.

 
Wednesday, March 17th

House Committee on Ways and Means at 9:00 AM

SCR1024 initiatives; tax increases; vote requirement (Petersen) refers to the voters a measure to require a two-thirds vote for certain initiatives and referenda that include tax increases. This is a reaction to Prop. 208. OPPOSE.

House Committee on Government & Elections at 9:00 AM

SB1003 early voting; signature required; notice (Ugenti-Rita) limits curing an early ballot with a missing signature to 7:00 PM on Election Day. Currently, they can take several days to contact voters to let them know they forgot to sign and allow them an opportunity to sign. This is unnecessarily restrictive. OPPOSE.
SB1010 (now: recounts; requests; procedures; audits) (Mesnard) increases the minimum number of precincts in a post-election hand counts and allows individuals to file an action and bond in Superior Court for a recount of any election or portion of an election that is not subject to an automatic recount. So, people with money can challenge any election and demand a recount? OPPOSE.
SB1409 zoning ordinances; property rights; costs (Petersen) requires cities to consider impacts on the costs of housing before adopting any zoning ordinance or zoning ordinance text amendment. While not as bad as it was, it is still intended to limit protective actions by the cities. OPPOSE.
SB1497 ballot measures; proposition 105; disclosure (Ugenti-Rita) requires the official ballot and the publicity pamphlet to include a Proposition 105 notice. This notice will appear right above both the first statutory measure and also right above the first referendum. The notice states, "NOTICE: PURSUANT TO PROPOSITION 105 (1998), THESE MEASURES CANNOT BE CHANGED IN THE FUTURE IF APPROVED ON THE BALLOT EXCEPT BY A THREE-FOURTHS VOTE OF THE MEMBERS OF EACH HOUSE OF THE LEGISLATURE AND IF THE CHANGE FURTHERS THE PURPOSE OF THE ORIGINAL BALLOT MEASURE, OR BY REFERRING THE CHANGE TO THE BALLOT." The Legislature should absolutely not put this on the actual ballot. The ballot is no place for messaging, analysis, etc. That belongs in campaign literature and in some cases may be appropriate for the publicity pamphlet. We do not put any other notices on the actual ballot, including fiscal analysis, why include this? OPPOSE.
SB1531 petition signatures; description; invalidity (Mesnard: Leach) voids the signature of any initiative or referendum petition signer that signs the petition without either hearing or reading the initiative or referendum description printed on the petition. This is another ridiculous requirement.
What if you actually had read the measure? Why should you have to read or hear the description? It also says the circulator has to cross out a signature if they think the person did not read or listen to the description. OPPOSE.

Thursday, March 18th

Senate Committee on Judiciary at 9:00 AM

HB2309 violent; disorderly assembly; public order (Roberts: Barton, Biasiucci, et al) defines a violent and disorderly assembly as when a gathering of seven or more people, with the intent of engaging in a riot, causes damage to property or injures another person; makes participating in a disorderly assembly a class 6 felony; and targets protesters by increasing the penalties of lower level offenses to a felony if part of a gathering. This is clearly targeting the movement for Black Lives and people of color. OPPOSE.

REQUEST TO SPEAK ACTIONS for week of March 8th

Please sign in on the Request to Speak (RTS) system to oppose SB1429, SB1485, HB2577, HB2691, and HB2714.

Please sign in to support HB2623 and HCR2034.

If you had an account with RTS previously, it is still active. Sign in, click Request to Speak, click New Request, then cut and paste the bill number, weigh in for or against the bill while it is still in committee. You can leave a short comment explaining your position. Click "no" on Do you wish to speak? - unless you want to speak in person. Click New Request to weigh in on the next bill. Repeat as needed.

If you do not have an account, go ahead and set one up, but someone will have to help you activate it as it requires going to the Capitol. Reach out to Civic Engagement Beyond Voting to sign you up.

https://www.cebv.us/rts.html

Monday, March 8th Senate Committee on Government at 2:00 PM HB2310 municipalities; counties; law enforcement budgets (NOW: executive orders; review; attorney general) (Roberts: Barton, Biasiucci, et al.) allows any legislator to ask Legislative Council to review presidential executive orders and recommend to the Attorney General to further review an executive order to determine the legality of the order. Just when Pres. Biden is using executive orders to reinstate the environmental protections removed by the previous administration's executive orders.  Tuesday, March 9th Senate Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM HB2577 appropriation; water supply study (Griffin: Bowers) appropriates $5 million for the study of additional water supplies. It is ridiculous to spend a bunch of money looking for additional water supplies (including in the Mississippi) instead of just seeking to conserve more water and investing dollars in that. OPPOSE. Every year Griffin proposes a similar bill. She probably wants to pump all of our ground water for developments (for her own benefit as a realtor). And perhaps transport desalinated water from the Gulf of California. We need to conserve our water here, not transport from other states - costing us more money and environmental harm.   House Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water at 2:00 PM  SB1429 solid waste services; private provider (Townsend: Fillmore) prohibits a city from enforcing a criminal penalty against someone who refuses to retain private trash collection unless that private trash collection is retained by the city. The key concern with this is it will result in more illegal dumping, which is already a big problem. OPPOSE.  Wednesday, March 10th Senate Committee on Government & Elections at 9:00 AM SB1485 elections; voting center tabulation (now: early voting list; eligibility) (Ugenti Rita) removes voters from the Permanent Early Voting List (PEVL) if they do not vote an early ballot in two consecutive primary and general elections. This is the resurrection of a bill that died and would result in a significant purge of the PEVL, plus eliminates the word "Permanent" from the statute. OPPOSE. Senate Committee on Finance at 9:30 PM HB2714 environmental technology; biomass; forestry (Nutt) allows a company to qualify for the Arizona Commerce Authority's (ACA) Environmental Technology Assistance Program if it locates or makes additional capital investment in a facility that processes biomass and forestry industry products. This is a subsidy for biomass, which is not carbon neutral, pollutes, and does not focus on forest health. OPPOSE. Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water at 2:00 PM  HB2691 groundwater permits; technical correction (NOW: ADEQ; water quality program; WOTUS) (Griffin) creates an extremely weak surface water quality program that leaves out nearly all ephemeral waters such as desert washes and provides limited protections overall. OPPOSE. HCR2034 Arizona's outdoors; recreation; supporting (Cobb) recognizes the value of outdoor recreations. I am not sure why they are doing this again. They already passed a nearly identical resolution. SUPPORT. Senate Committee on Commerce at 2:00 PM HB2623 fireworks; use; overnight hours; prohibition (Shah: Bowers, Lieberman, et al.) prohibits the use of "permissible consumer fireworks" between 10:00 P.M. and 8:00 A.M. This is an improvement after years of the legislature creating a bit of a free-for-all on fireworks. SUPPORT.

Tell Legislators: Don't weaken environmental protections on plastic recycling facilities

Recycling plastics isn't the solution.  We need to reduce our use. But if we are going to recycle, it is important to have strong environmental protections in place for recycling centers. SB1156 weakens environment regulations on certain types of plastic recycling facilities.  

It is likely to go for a vote in the state legislator today (Monday, Feb. 8th). Please, call your senator now!  

SB1156 forfeiture of office; technical correction (now: solid waste; advanced recycling facilities ) is being promoted by the plastics industry and is making the rounds throughout the U.S. It seeks to masquerade the processes outlined as “advanced recycling” and part of a “circular economy,” but instead they are producing more of the same, including the production and burning of fossil fuels, as well as pyrolysis. It exempts these plastics processes, including pyrolysis and conversion of plastic to fuel, from the definition of solid waste, so they are more lightly regulated, and also includes them in the acceptable uses for grants for the Recycling Fund monies. Please call your senator and ask them to vote no. 

 
If you don't know who your Senator is, you can find out what district you are in by putting your zip code in here:  https://azredistricting.org/districtlocator/

Then look up their numbers here: https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/?body=S

Learn more about our plastic problem:

Solving Microplastic Pollution Means Reducing, Recycling—and Fundamental Rethinking - Scientific American

LEARN ABOUT PLASTIC POLLUTION: THE PROBLEM WITH PLASTICS - Greenpeace 

Urge Sen. Sinema to support the COVID relief bill and raising the Minimum Wage

 

Where is our other "Democrat" Senator when we need her?

Last week, the House of Representatives voted to pass a big, bold COVID relief bill that includes survival checks, expanded unemployment insurance, and other key lifesaving policies. The bill will soon be making its way to the Senate floor for further debate, amendments, and a vote. Senator Kyrsten Sinema has said that she doesn’t support elements of the current COVID package—specifically, she doesn't support raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

We can’t afford to let Sen. Sinema water down this bill. She must join the vast majority of Democrats—and Americans overall—who are fully supportive of getting Biden's entire $1.9 trillion COVID relief package passed, so that Americans who need support to survive this crisis can get it as soon as possible.

On Thursday, March 4 at 12:00 p.m., we'll be gathering outside of Sen. Sinema's Tucson office to send her a message: "Will you fight for us? 20 E Ochoa St, Tucson, AZ 

Click here to RSVP to this event!

Now is not the time to reduce the amount of COVID relief. Millions of people are relying on our elected officials to deliver robust relief as they struggle to make ends meet.

And we need to make sure Sen. Sinema knows this.

Join us tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. as we take that message directly to her office.

Join Move on members to deliver that message to Sen. Sinema on Monday. Masks are mandatory. Signs are welcome.

We are committed to maintaining public health measures to practice safe protesting during the pandemic. All event participants are expected to wear a mask, maintain social distancing, and follow all local safety guidelines. Individual hosts are responsible for compliance with their own local laws and event requirements (including orders limiting the sizes of events).

Additionally, a core principle shared by supporting organizations is a commitment to nonviolent, peaceful actions. All actions that are sponsored or organized on this page are intended to be nonviolent and peaceful. We expect all participants to act lawfully at all times and to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.

Can't come? Please, call Senator Sinema

Tucson Phone: 520-639-7080

Washington Phone: 202-224-4521

Don't let the AZ legislature bulldoze our voting rights and the ACC's environmental actions

It was a bad week for democracy at the Arizona Legislature as several committees and full House and Senate advanced bills to suppress votes (SB1593, HB2792, HB2793, HB2811), purge the Permanent Early Voting List (SB1485), and make ballot measures more difficult (SCR1024, HCR2001, HCR2016). They also moved forward with some bad energy and water bills.

The attacks on the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) and its clean energy rules inched forward with some amendments that fail to address the constitutional and public policy flaws. I know it gets a bit tiresome having to keep contacting your legislators about these bills, but I fear that if we let up, even a little bit, they will end up on the governor's desk.

HB2737 corporation commission actions; investigations (Parker: Barton, Biasiucci, et al.) was on the House Committee of the Whole (COW) calendar twice, but did not move after they adjourned early for legislators to attend a conservative gathering. This bill allows any legislator to challenge an action by the ACC (with a few limits in the amendment), sending it to the attorney general who could take it directly to the Arizona Supreme Court. A successful challenge would result in a hit to the ACC budget, affecting its ability to fulfill its responsibilities to regulate utilities and other entities.

HB2248 corporation commission; electric generation resources (Griffin) was amended in COW and now specifically preempts the ACC from directly or indirectly reducing carbon emissions and it establishes the current low renewable energy standard. It is still unconstitutional and still bad policy. Sadly, the House Speaker, Representative Bowers, is strongly supporting the bill. HB2248's twin in the Senate, SB1175 corporation commission; electric generation resources (Kerr: Gowan, Gray, et al.), passed out of the Senate Rules committee and awaits floor action. Senator Fann, President of the Senate, expressed support for it.

One other bill, SB1459 agency decisions; administrative reviews (Petersen), is also advancing to make the ACC subject to the same administrative process as agencies. That is inappropriate as it is a separate branch of government, not just another agency.

Please use this link to ask your legislators to oppose all four bills. Also consider a phone call to your legislators. You can find the legislators' numbers here.

Stop Attacks on Ballot Measures