Request to Speak on Crazy Bills at the State Legislature

Crazy legislator making trouble for Tucson

This week there are 20 bad bills to weigh in on the Request to Speak system. I understand that is a lot. You might want to complete the ones being heard in committee during the first half of the week first and come back to do the rest later. Or maybe you want to prioritize doing all the water bills now to make sure you don’t forget. (The water bills are being heard on Tuesday and Thursday.)

On Wednesday there are 4 bad voting bills (in addition to some crazy bills that don’t allow agencies or universities to work on climate solutions.) The reason I include the voting bills is because if we can’t vote, we can’t advocate for the environment.

Maybe you have other priorities. Please, do what you can. There are some crazy politicians out there that are proposing some crazy bills and have lots of crazy followers who are supporting their bills. We need to show Governor Hobbs that we support her vetoes if it comes to that.

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

Register for the RTS system here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdjBMoAJrjHD57GGegmdUCKAowcr93K4vQA6a7_AjyElBtrQ/viewform

Monday, February 5th

Land, Agriculture, & Rural Affairs Committee at 2:00PM

• HB2121 cell-cultured animal product; prohibition (Marshall: Bliss, Cook, et al) prohibits and establishes penalties for selling a cell-cultured animal product for human or animal consumption to protect the livestock industry. OPPOSE

Senate Elections Committee at 2:00PM

• SB1131 low voter turnout elections; repeat (Kavanagh) requires local elections in which less than 25 percent of eligible registered voters vote to be repeated on the next statewide or federal election ballot. This will cause huge issues for local government and leave things in limbo as they await the do over. It also costs more money and disenfranchises the people who did vote in the election.  OPPOSE

Tuesday, February 6th

House Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee at 2:00 PM
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• HB2020 long-term storage; stormwater; rainwater; rules (Griffin) It allows developers to receive credit for putting in infrastructure (even roads) that they project will recharge stormwater. That infrastructure is exempt from the management requirements of an AMA. The developer doesn’t have to demonstrate that recharge occurs. OPPOSE
• HB2060 irrigation non-expansion area; substitution; acres (Griffin) In an Irrigation Non-expansion Area (INA) an owner can retire irrigated acres and substitute them for others and then use the water for any purpose including putting in a development. This goes against the spirit and intent of the INAs. OPPOSE
• HB2063 exempt wells; certificate; groundwater use (Griffin) requires the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) to issue a certificate of water rights to those with exempt wells (35 gallons per minute or less) that register the well with ADWR. This appears to be another loophole in AMA management. OPPOSE
• HB2545 annual vehicle emissions testing; exemption (Jones: Gillette, Kolodin, et al) says that vehicles manufactured after 2018 are exempt from emissions testing. There is no way to see if someone has modified the new car to have more emissions and there is no expiration date so eventually the new cars will be old cars. Basically, they are saying that no car on the road requires emissions testing. OPPOSE
• HB2546 vehicle emissions; exemption (Jones: Gillette, Kolodin, et al) Essentially from 2018 on no car will be subject to emissions testing.  OPPOSE
• HB2647 physical availability credits; water supply (Smith: Griffin) allows a landowner who has an irrigation grandfathered right in an active management area to retire the land from irrigation but retain a physical availability credit to non-irrigation use of the land. This specifically gets around assured water supply requirements for subdivisions in AMAs and allows continued groundwater mining without any replenishment. There must be replenishment when the irrigation grandfathered right is converted to a new credit as merely slowing the rate of groundwater depletion is not enough. OPPOSE

House Commerce Committee at 2:00 PM
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• HB2297 adaptive reuse; commercial buildings; zoning (Biasiucci: Bliss, Carbone, et al) S/E: same subject. This strike everything amendment allows the construction of multi-family dwellings that doesn’t comply with local zoning requirements. OPPOSE
• HCM2001 reevaluate restrictions; chemical industry (Willoughby) objects to new regulations on the chemical industry. It's unclear just which regulations they are including in their objections, but one area the Biden Administration has been taking action on is relative to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), otherwise known as "forever chemicals" that cause harmful health impacts. OPPOSE

Wednesday, February 7th

Senate Committee on Government at 9:00 AM
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• SB1195 public monies; prohibited uses  (Kern) is a wacky bill. It says no public entity -- this would include any agencies, universities, etc. -- can promote, advocate, or plan for or belong to an organization that does anything relating to reducing meat and dairy consumption, reducing or replacing vehicle travel with walking, biking, or public transit, reusing water for human consumption that has touched human feces (note that would eliminate the Colorado River), reducing  greenhouse gas emissions or tracking any information to determine consumption based emissions, limiting the increase of the average global  temperature or producing a climate action plan, and a bunch more ridiculous provisions. In addition to being really wacky, if passed, it would tie the hands of agencies, cities, and universities relative to doing anything about climate change or doing things to clean up our air by reducing vehicle travel. OPPOSE
• SCR1015 public monies; prohibited expenditures (Kern) refers to the ballot the provisions of the bill above, SB1195. OPPOSE

House Committee on Government at 9:00 AM
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• HB2457 government investments; plans; fiduciaries; products (Montenegro) prohibits any investments by the state that consider any environmental, social, or governance goals. This is to prevent the state from divesting from fossil fuels or otherwise being a responsible investor. OPPOSE

House Municipal Oversight & Elections at 2:00 PM in HHR4
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• HB2405 voter registrations; recorder; inactive status (Gillette: Biasiucci, Bliss, et al) allows a county recorder to declare a person's voter registration status as inactive, disenfranchising more voters. OPPOSE
• HB2719 bond elections; date; voter turnout (Carbone: Biasiucci, Dunn, et al) requires a number of things relative to bond elections, including that there must at least be a 60 percent turnout for the bond to be issued. Currently, less than 50% of registered voters participate in Arizona elections, so this would make it impossible for cities to pass any bonds It also says that elections can only be held on even years and Tucson holds elections on odd and even years, so this seems to be an attack on Tucson. OPPOSE
• HCR2028 elections; signature verification process (Kolodin: McGarr, Rogers) refers to the ballot a signature verification process that can result in disqualifying more voters. OPPOSE
• HCR2040 public monies; prohibited expenditures (Smith: Biasiucci, Carbone, et al) is the same as SCR1015 (see above). OPPOSE

​​​​Thursday, February 8th

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

• Presentations
• Overview of CAP - Brenda Burman, General Manager of Central Arizona Project
• Arizona Golf Water Stewardship - Rob Collins, Chairman of Arizona Alliance for Golf Water Committee
• SB1221 basin management areas; appropriation (Kerr: Griffin) establishes a process for creating basin management areas via a petition with signatures from 15 percent of the registered voters that live in the basin and receive their drinking water from the basin. These can only be established if land subsidence is endangering property or affecting water storage, and there is an accelerated decline in groundwater levels. This would be too difficult to pass until is too late. Why wait until the situation is critical? . OPPOSE
• SB1242 ADWR; application; review; time frames (Shope: Kerr) Cuts the time frame for ADWR to review applications for assured water supply certificates nearly in half. This doesn’t allow enough time for ADWR to do a thorough review. OPPOSE
• SB1289 DWR; hydrology reports (Hoffman) requires the Governor and the Department of Water Resources to provide a report on the hydrology of an active management area to the House and Senate Natural Resource, Energy, and Water committees 30 days before it is issued. There is no reason that the legislature should be reviewing the hydrology report before it is published. Are they hydrologists?  OPPOSE