Saturday, April 1, 2023

Push back on the AZ Legislature's Bad Plan for Arizona!

AZ Legislature's plan for Tucson!

Only the Appropriations committees and Rules committees will be meeting next week, so I am only recommending four bills to weigh in on with Request to Speak. (See bottom of page.) This looks like a lot to do, but there are really only three other actions and the Sierra Club has included helpful links. (It looks long because I’ve included the description of the bills.)

Last week, there were several strike-everything amendments where they replace a bill with an entirely new bill via an amendment. Some of those did not advance, including SB1104 relating to a weak renewable energy standard. It was held and therefore is dead for the session.

The strike-everything amendment did get added to SB1278. This measure would take away local control on home appliances and limit local leaders’ ability to establish building code provisions related to affordability, energy, and public health.  

1) Help stop this bad striker by sending a message to your AZ representatives here. 

Lots of reasons to fight this bill:

·     It could prevent local governments from adopting codes and ordinances that improve indoor air quality. 

·     It could prevent the adoption of future building energy codes that require ventilation of gas stoves to improve public health. 

·    It could restrict the adoption of codes, plans, or ordinances that plan for all-electric homes to reduce the costs of building development. 

·     It could effectively prohibit the adoption of the International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC) and regulate hazardous chemical release from appliances found in the International Bulk Chemical Code (IBC Code). 

·    It could apply to any appliances that use electricity and fuel regulated by local governments, such as smoke detectors, circuit breakers, and building exit signs while allowing HVAC or refrigeration systems to use high-explosive refrigerants if the manufacturer included them. 

·    It could prevent local governments from regulating appliances like gas stoves that emit a variety of toxic gasses, including nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde. These can contribute to respiratory issues, harm children’s lung growth, and lead to heart disease and cancer. 

·    It could prevent water utilities from providing rebates for efficient sprinklers and faucets when Arizona is in a water crisis.

·     It could also prevent the adoption of several other codes, including the International Mechanical Code, portions of the International Fire Code, the International Plumbing Code, and the International Swimming and Spa code.

2) This week, two harmful transmission line siting bills passed out of the Senate along party lines and are on their way to the Governor's desk.

HB2437 transmission lines; applications; exceptions (Griffin) exempts a transmission line that is entirely on private land from being required to obtain a certificate of environmental compatibility from the Arizona Power Plant and Line Siting Committee, so there would be no environmental review. 

HB2496 transmission lines; definition (Griffin) changes the definition of a transmission line to include only those lines that are one mile are longer. This means the siting of the lines that are less than one mile would have no review by the Arizona Power Plant and Line Siting Committee. 

Please contact the Governor and ask her to veto both HB2437 and HB2496!

3) Keep up the pressure to oppose bills that undermine public transportation, accommodation of bicycles, and any efforts to reduce traffic.

Please ask your representatives to oppose SB1312, SB1313, SB1314, and SCR1018.

It is irresponsible to not include ways to reduce motor vehicle traffic and accommodate other transportation, including bicycles, in our planning. It runs contrary to our air quality plans, which include goals for reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Unfortunately, the Arizona Legislature is seeking to limit local government and the Arizona Department of Transportation's (ADOT) ability to plan for transit and bikes and reduce vehicle travel. Already, the Arizona Senate passed the following two bills along party lines (16-13-1). All four of these bills are still in the House.


·     SB1313 general plan; transportation; independent study (Hoffman) prohibits general plans from including policies or projects that reduce vehicle traffic and removes element from the general plan regarding multimodal transportation. 

·    SB1314 transportation system performance; ADOT (Hoffman) changes performance factors to de-emphasize congestion relief and connecting with multi-modal transportation, plus prohibits adopting a motor vehicle travel mile reduction target or any other demand-management policy or project. 

·     SB1697 highways; bicycle paths; walkways; prohibition (Hoffman) prohibits the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) from planning, designing, or constructing bicycle paths or pedestrian walkways and accepting federal monies conditioned on the design and construction of a bicycle path or pedestrian walkway. 

·   SCR1018 prohibit tax; monitoring; vehicle (Hoffman) refers to the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit any fees based on vehicle miles traveled. As we reduce reliance on gasoline and gasoline-powered vehicles, gas tax revenues will decrease and other ways to fund road maintenance are needed such as looking at vehicle miles traveled.


SIGN ON TO REQUEST TO SPEAK (while the following bills are in committee)

https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

Monday, April 3rd

House Committee on Appropriations at 10:00 AM

  • SB1001 pronouns; biological sex; school policies (Kavanagh) prohibits a public school employee from knowingly addressing a student under the age of 18 by a pronoun that differs from the pronoun that aligns with the student's biological sex or a first name that differs from the student's official school records without written parental permission. A social justice issue and common courtesy. OPPOSE
  • SB1244 appropriations; crime victim notification fund (Kavanagh) will have a strike-everything amendments on S/E: tax credit extension; affordable housing includes $10 million tax credits for affordable housing. SUPPORT

Tuesday, April 4th

Senate Committee on Appropriations at 1:00 PM


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