Request to Speak actions for Bills heard on Monday and Tuesday

Request to Speak on bills about EV chargers and affordable housing

This week sign in on the Request to Speak system to weigh in on a bill that starts a pilot program for funding EV charging stations or to strengthen a bill on affordable housing. And don't forget to OPPOSE those bad voting bills that keep on coming. 

It appears that the Request to Speak System has been fixed, so signing in on bills should be easier this week. If you had an account with RTS previously, it is still active. Civic Engagement Beyond Voting (CEBV) is graciously volunteering to sign you up for the Request to Speak system if you have not done so already. To get an account set up, follow this link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdjBMoAJrjHD57GGegmdUCKAowcr93K4vQA6a7_AjyElBtrQ/viewform

NOTE: See CALL-IN  ACTIONS for this week too. 

Coming Up at the Arizona Legislature this Week

Monday, February 21st

House Rules Committee at 8 A.M 

HB2656, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-12), would ban financial institutions and their contractors from "discriminating" against someone based on their political affiliation or social or environmental values. This would force the continuation of the Trump-era push to ensure that polluters and gun makers get equal access to financial services. This is absurd. Unlike race, religion or gender, someone’s political opinion isn’t covered by fair lending statute. OPPOSE.

SB1631, sponsored by Sine Kerr (R-13), would repeal current law allowing electric retail competition, block cooperative community choice for electricity, and interfere with the Arizona Corporation Commission’s planning process. The bill has attracted opposition from sources as divergent as consumer advocate Stacy Pearson, who calls it “a rooftop-solar killing, monopoly preserving bill,” and conservative columnist Rob Robb, who points out, “It would be a mistake to cut off what would amount to a small pilot project in retail electricity competition.” See also mirror bill HB2101.  OPPOSE.

House Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM

HB2726 S/E: ballot fraud countermeasures; ink; paper requires holograms, specific paper, ink, etc. for ballots. This is more of the big lie nonsense from 2020. This would make the election nearly impossible and unwieldy to conduct. OPPOSE
HB2728 appropriations; ADOT; tier 2 studies (Wilmeth) appropriates $25 million for the Tier 2 study of I-11 in Maricopa County. We are very much opposed to this harmful freeway, so oppose spending more on studies to accommodate it. OPPOSE
HB2789 Arizona trail; fund; purpose (Diaz: Biasiucci, Blackman, et al) authorizes Arizona Trail Fund to be used for constructing, maintaining, and improving water sources, signs, gates and public access. This seems like it is probably okay.

Tuesday, February 22nd

Senate Committee on Appropriations at 9:00 AM

SB1151 charging station; pilot program; appropriation (Steele: Jermaine) appropriates $500,000 for a pilot program for charging stations administered by ADOA that allows state agencies to apply for funding to cover the costs of installing charging stations. This is a two-year pilot. SUPPORT
SB1458 S/E elections prohibits early ballots from being tallied prior to election day. 
SB1571 ballot drop boxes; surveillance; appropriation (Townsend) prohibits voted early ballots from being returned by mail. Outlines requirements for ballot drop-boxes, including a monitoring camera. This is ridiculous. OPPOSE
SB1634 S/E affordable housing; municipalities requires a municipality with a population of more than 100,000 persons to develop at least 4 out of list of 22 strategies to incentivize affordable housing. How about just requiring developers to provide affordable housing?

REQUEST TO SPEAK DIRECTIONS:

Sign on to your Request to Speak account, click the blue Request to Speak button, click on New Request in the nav bar (left column), then simply cut and paste the bill number into Search Phrase (for example: HB2728). Push blue Add Request button, weigh in FOR or AGAINST, click No on Do you wish to speak? (in person), leave a short Comment, and click on SUBMIT. For another submission, click on the New Request link in the nav bar on the left and follow the directions above.