Sign petitions to your legislators on bad bills for the environment

For this legislative update we are focusing more on some bills that we think might come to the floor next week, especially two referrals. The referrals cannot be vetoed, so need special attention. Please, sign these petitions from the Sierra Club to urge your legislators to vote "no" on these terrible bills.

Please take action and tell your representatives to oppose SB1221. It sets up an impossible process for establishing basin management areas and codifies current overpumping of rural groundwater.   Learn more and take action here.

HCR2040 public monies; prohibited expenditures (Smith: Biasiucci, Carbone, et al.) is one of those referrals. It would place a measure on the 2024 ballot to prohibit the state or any political subdivision, including universities, to do anything to help reduce global temperatures, have a climate action plan, participate in anything related to reducing meat consumption, etc. It wraps this up with a bow related to prohibiting "furthering Marxist ideologies." It is clearly intended to connect all of these issues and motivate voters who fear that there is a vast conspiracy to make this a better world.    Tell your senator to vote no on HCR2040!

HCR2050 energy source; restriction; prohibition (Griffin: Biasiucci, Bliss, et al) passed out of the Senate Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee along party lines on Thursday. It would put on the 2024 ballot a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit a city, town, county or any other political subdivision of the state from restricting the manufacture, use or sale of a device based on the energy source that is either used to power the device or consumed by the device. Device is not defined, but this is clearly intended to preclude any limits on fossil fuel "devices," including gas. This will make it harder to protect our air, our water, our health, and our communities.    Please send a message to your senator asking them to oppose HCR2050.

Arizona has roughly 28 million acres of federal public lands. These places provide extensive opportunities for recreation and key habitat and corridors for numerous animal species. Public lands provide us with clean air and clean water, and they, like other lands in our state, are all Indigenous lands -- that should be part of the context of what happens with them. The AZ Legislature has frequently sought more control of our federal public lands, attempting to privatize and eliminate or weaken protections for the land, water, and wildlife. These bills have been vetoed by Republican governors and also defeated overwhelmingly on the ballot. Arizonans love our public lands. Please tell your senator to vote no on bills that seek to hinder protection of public lands and waters. Read more about them and take action here. Take action to protect public lands: https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Arizona?actionId=AR0426717

Sneaky strike-everything amendments reword approved bills and other bad bills prohibit environmental actions @ AZ Legislature

Strike-everything sneaks in new bills

This week there are several strike-everything amendments. (Basically, a strike-everything is a bizarre rule in the state legislature that allows replacing all of the text of a bill that has gone through committee with completely new - and often unrelated - text.) This means you may need to change a previous RTS comment to reflect the new bill.

This week the Senate continued to advance many bad policies, including HCR2040, which passed along party lines.

HCR2040 public monies; prohibited expenditures (Smith: Biasiucci, Carbone, et al.) would place a measure on the 2024 ballot to prohibit the state or any political subdivision, including universities, to do anything to help reduce global temperatures, have a climate action plan, participate in anything related to reducing meat consumption, etc. It wraps this up with a bow related to prohibiting "furthering Marxist ideologies."
 
Tell your senator to vote no on HCR2040! You can find their phone number here.

Request to Speak on the following bills before they are heard in their respective committees.

Sign onto the RTS app:
https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

Monday, March 18th

Senate Transportation, Technology, and Missing Children Committee at 2:00 PM 

• HCR2049 ballot measures; challenges (Carter) will have a strike-everything amendment on freedom to move would put on the 2024 ballot a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit limits on vehicle miles travelled or having any fee based on vehicle miles traveled. The latter is one of the ways to fund roads as gas taxes continue to dwindle. Limiting traffic can improve our air quality is part of the clean air plans. OPPOSE

Senate Finance and Commerce Committee at 2:00PM

• HB2734 affordable housing; parking requirements; prohibition (now: public hearings; voting) (Ortiz: Biasiucci, Peña) will have a strike-everything amendment to limit public hearings on zoning ordinances. OPPOSE

Wednesday, March 20th

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee at 2:00 PM 

• SB1052 all-terrain vehicles; definition (Carroll: Farnsworth, Cook) increases the allowable weight for all-terrain vehicles from 2500 to 3000. Heavier vehicles do more damage and kick up more dust in unpaved areas. OPPOSE

House Municipal Oversight and Elections Committee at 2:00 PM
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• SCR1041 ballot measures; challenges (Mesnard) refers a measure that allows challenges to proposed ballot measures by any person and earlier in the process -even before the election. Just another way to keep citizens' initiatives from getting on the ballot.  OPPOSE

Thursday, March 21st

NOTE: There are a bunch of strike everything amendments that haven't been posted yet, Please check back later in the week.

Easy week for Requests to Speak!

WHEW! Easy week...

There aren't many Request to Speak actions this week because most of these bills were previously in the other chamber of the legislature and we commented on them there.

Enjoy Wednesday's presentation on state parks, if you choose to view that!

Request to Speak on the following bills before they are heard in their respective committees.

Sign onto the RTS app:
https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

Monday, March 11th 

Senate Elections Committee at 2:00 PM 

• HCR2058 legislative districts; population; census; citizenship (Heap: Chaplik, Gillette, et al) would put a measure on the 2024 ballot to require a state census that the Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) must use to determine legislative districts based on citizenship population. This is a direct attack on the IRC and would subvert US census data to dilute and attack communities. OPPOSE 

Wednesday, March 13th

Senate Government Committee at 9:00 AM

• HCR2056 preferential treatment; discrimination; prohibition (Montenegro: Biasiucci, Bliss, et al) prohibits addressing the impacts of racism and discrimination by prohibiting any actions based on race or ethnicity. OPPOSE

House Government Committee at 10:00 AM 
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• Presentation on State Parks 

Thursday, March 14th

Senate Natural Resources, Energy, & Water Committee at 9:00 AM
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• HB2022 conservation easements; maintenance; weeds (Griffin) requires the holder of a conservation easement to maintain the property when this is the responsibility of the property owner. This bill would discourage conservation easements. OPPOSE

Request to Speak actions for week of March 2nd... and one last chance to contact your legislators on bad energy bill (HCR 2050)

Environmental actions on the ballot?! 

If you have been keeping up with our Request to Speak actions, you should have already weighed in on most of the bills that are now being heard in the other house. So, our list is shorter this week. (See RTS actions below). If you haven’t, you can find previous RTS actions on the Desktop Activist Tucson website and still weigh in on them.  

This week I have included some bad voting bills because it makes it difficult to advocate for the environment if we can’t vote.

Unfortunately, HCR 2050 made it through committee and awaits a Third Read vote in the house. If it passes it will put this horrific bill on the ballot. Governor Hobbs won't be able to veto it!  If you haven't already, please, reach out to your legislators using the Sierra Club’s petition (link below).

 

HCR2050 energy source; restriction; prohibition (Griffin: Biasiucci, Bliss, et al) would put on the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit a city, town, county or any other political subdivision of the state from restricting the manufacture, use or sale of a device based on the energy source that is either used to power the device or consumed by the device. Device is not defined, but this is clearly intended to preclude any limits on fossil fuels, including gas. This will make it harder to protect our air, our water, our health, and our communities.
 

Take action against HCR2050 here.

​

Request to Speak on the following bills before they are heard in their respective committees.

Sign onto the RTS app:
https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

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

Monday, March 4th

Senate Elections Committee at 2:00 PM

• HB2404 voter registration cards; mailing limitation (Gillette: Biasiucci, Bliss, et al) prohibits the county recorder from providing an initial or updated voter registration card to a person whose mailing address is outside of Arizona except for active military members and those for whom there is no Arizona mail address. This would exclude students. OPPOSE
• HB2482 voter registration changes; text notice  (Parker B) requires county recorders to notify people either via text or in writing if they make any changes to their voting records and provide them with information on how they can check their record and make any changes needed. This is a good transparency measure and a service to voters. SUPPORT
• HB2852 voter registrations; organizations; prohibition (Heap: Chaplik, Gillette, et al) prohibits the  state and any city, town, county or political subdivision from participating as a member of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). The state can’t provide information to ERIC (a trusted non-profit organization that makes sure people don’t register to vote in more than one state). Instead, they must hire a third-party contractor. OPPOSE

Senate Finance and Commerce Committee at 2:00PM

• HB2007 subdivided lands; civil penalties (Griffin) says a civil penalty for a subdivider or agent who engages in unlawful practice with respect to the sale or lease of subdivided lands applies to each lot where a violation occurs rather than all of the lots combined. This is positive because it increases the penalty for unscrupulous developers. SUPPORT

House Municipal Affairs and Public Safety at 2:00 PM

• SCR1042 support; Texas; southern border (Bolick: Bennett, Borrelli, et al) supports Texas's unlawful and harmful activities along its border with Mexico that have resulted in the deaths of immigrants. OPPOSE