AZ Legislative Update and Request to Speak Action, 1/7/2024

On Monday, the Arizona Legislature will start its 2024 session, kicking off with the live State of the State address from Governor Hobbs.

Sustainable Tucson joined the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations in signing onto the priorities for the Arizona Legislature and Governor at the Capitol. The focus of the priorities is water, but climate/clean energy, democracy, and environmental justice are also included. You can read the priorities here.

On Tuesday, legislators will start hearing bills in committees. Please, look out for weekly REQUEST TO SPEAK actions. You can weigh in on bills (listed below) by using the RTS app anytime before they are heard in committee.

Sign onto the RTS app: 

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

Review Request to Speak directions:

https://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2018/03/request-to-speak-time.html

If you haven't already, register for the RTS system here:

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

Monday, January 8th

First Day of the 2024 Legislative Session.

Governor Hobbs's State of the State address at 2:00 PM. You can view it live here.

Tuesday, January 9th

House Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee at 2:00 PM in House Hearing Room (HHR) 1 
View a livestream of the committee here.

Presentations:

• “Overview of the Central Arizona Project," Brenda Burman, General Manager of the Central Arizona Project
• “Overview of the Salt River Project,” Kyle Tilghman, Director of Water Strategy and Bill McClellan, Manager of Resource Development
• “Overview of the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority,” Chuck Podolak, Executive Director of the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority
• 
  
• HB2016 grandfathered right; subsequent AMA; extension (Griffin) is an emergency measure, meaning it will become law immediately if the Governor signs it. The bill  extends the deadline for a person to claim a grandfathered right to withdraw or receive and use groundwater in the Douglas active management area
  (AMA)*. This will further delay getting this AMA on track to limiting groundwater pumping. OPPOSE
• HB2027 subsequent AMAs; assured water supply (Griffin) exempts proposed subdivisions from the requirements of an ordinance that has been adopted by either a municipality or a county if the proposed subdivision is included within the boundaries of a subsequent active management area (AMA)*. This would affect counties such as Cochise and Yuma and would give subdivisions an automatic assured water supply if there was an adequate water supply. This is a loophole to weaken the requirements for Assured Water Supply in a newly approved Active Management Area. OPPOSE
• HB2099 active management area; groundwater right (Griffin) allows a groundwater user located in an area previously designated as an irrigation non-expansion area (INA) that becomes designated as an AMA* to receive a water duty (maximum amount of water per acre) based on the groundwater user's highest annual withdrawal since the INA was established. This will maximize rather than minimize groundwater pumping in this new AMA. It also has an emergency clause on it. OPPOSE
  

*For more information on the Arizona Groundwater Management Act, here is the recording of the workshop.