Push back on bad bills for our environment, water & voting rights

Here we go. The Arizona legislature is off and running proposing a lot of really bad bills that make it more difficult to protect the environment, conserve water, or even vote. Please, weigh in on these bills on the Request to Speak app.   https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon You can weigh in on these bills anytime while they are still in committee. Since there are so many bills you might want to do the ones earlier in the week first and then do the ones that are being heard later in the week. For example, go ahead and weigh in on SB1068 before it is heard on Monday at 2pm and the bills being heard Tuesday. Or prioritize the ones that are most important to you. (For me that would be water bills. See my NOTE below.)   If you haven't signed up for the system, you can find the form here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdjBMoAJrjHD57GGegmdUCKAowcr93K4vQA6a7_AjyElBtrQ/viewform Directions on how to navigate the system: https://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2018/03/request-to-speak-time.html NOTE: From her comments at previous committee meetings, it is clear that Griffin is trying to tie the hands of the ADWR who are just trying to do their job (for example monitoring how much groundwater there is in certain areas.) Developers need to demonstrate a 100 year water supply. Being a realtor, Griffin is always trying to lower that standard.  As you may be aware, Arizona's water laws are really lax. Rural areas are suffering from over-pumping for new development and industrial farms - leaving no water for small family farms and even causing sinkholes in the Wilcox area. New Active Management Areas (AMAs) were enacted to protect Wilcox and Douglas. Griffin has several bills that weaken or even end the AMAs. The Sierra Club also discourages augmentation (bringing water from other locations) because of the environmental impact and the creation of sacrifice zones (hurting the people who live on that land.) I personally agree with them and prefer conservation efforts.  If you would like to learn more about AMAs you can watch this Sierra Club presentation:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cviFTa-nSE Coming up this Week at the Arizona Legislature... Monday, January 27th Senate Federalism Committee at 2:00 PM  Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. Presentation • State and Federal Lands, Danny Martinez SB1068 federal government; land acquisition; consent (Finchem: Angius) requires that the governor and legislature approve any sale or transfer of private land to the federal government. This is ridiculous and has been introduced many times and vetoed many times by both Republican and Democratic governors. OPPOSE Tuesday, January 28th Senate Natural Resources Committee at 2:00 PM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. Presentation • Overview of Central Arizona Project, Brenda Burman, General Manager, Central Arizona Project SB1115 demand calculator; rules; conservation code (Dunn) requires the Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) to adopt rules to update ADWR's project demand calculator every five years. This is the spreadsheet used by developers when they apply for a certificate of assured water supply.  The language is very vague. But it appears to be a bill to force ADWR to adopt the Homebuilders' calculations. OPPOSE SB1116 groundwater model; receipt; written findings (Dunn) requires the Director of ADWR to provide notification of receipt within five days and a written response within 60 days to applicants who submit alternative groundwater models. Again, this is a bill for the developers who cannot seem to believe there is not enough water for them to keep sprawling on. OPPOSE SB1119 residential utilities; consumer office; definition (Dunn) defines "represents the interests of" as advocating for the safest and most reliable utility service achievable at the lowest retail electric rate possible. This is a giveaway to the fossil fuel industry. OPPOSE SB1128 air quality; causation; state boundaries (Carroll: Dunn, Kavanagh, et al) While we don't disagree that the attorney general should be allowed to sue any entity outside Arizona when their emissions result in damages to Arizona's air quality, we do disagree with the bill requiring that the Director of ADEQ consider the best interests of taxpayers, transmission of emissions from outside of Arizona, and effects of solar radiation and any associated heat increases when revising a state implementation. This is contrary to the Clean Air Act, which requires the focus to be on public health, not all of these outside factors. OPPOSE SB1134 ADWR; application; review; time frames (Shope) establishes licensing time frames for ADWR to make determinations for applications for new or modified certificates, designations or analyses of assured water supply. These licensing time frames will rush the necessary analysis for these certificates and designations. OPPOSE House Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee at 2:00 PM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. HB2084 domestic water improvement districts; hauling (Griffin: Diaz, Hendrix, et al) allows for formation of a domestic water improvement district for purposes of hauling water. Sadly, they focus on providing for water hauling rather than protecting groundwater so they don't have to haul it. OPPOSE HB2086 water improvements program; water hauling (Griffin: Diaz, Hendrix, et al) allows for water improvement grants to be used for water hauling and storage. OPPOSE HB2088 subsequent AMA; director; removal (Griffin: Diaz, Hendrix, et al) authorizes the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources to remove designation of a subsequent active management area. Currently, that would just apply to Douglas and Willcox. There is no need for this and once these areas are established the groundwater protections should stay in place. OPPOSE HB2089 subsequent AMA; voters; removal (Griffin: Diaz, Hendrix, et al) allows for removal of a subsequent active management area by the voters ten years after it is established. OPPOSE HB2202 subsequent AMA; previously nonirrigated land (Griffin) allows for previously unirrigated lands to be irrigated, thus increasing groundwater pumping in these active management areas. OPPOSE HB2203 historical water use;  subsequent AMA (Griffin) allows acreage to be irrigated in a subsequent active management area that was irrigated at any time in the last ten years rather than the last five years. It is retroactive so it would apply to the Douglas AMA and would be extremely difficult to prove, plus would likely result in more groundwater pumping.  It is widening the window to pump more groundwater and making it retroactive. (It's more like 13 years.) OPPOSE HB2549 appropriation; subsequent AMA; assistance grants (Diaz: Griffin) appropriates an undetermined amount of money to those in subsequent active management areas for attorneys and such, thus picking the taxpayers' pockets to fund lawsuits to challenge groundwater protections. OPPOSE HB2551 grandfathered right; Willcox AMA; extension (Diaz: Carter P, Griffin) extends the amount of time someone has to file an application for a certificate of grandfathered right with the Department of Water Resources. This was already proposed in the last session, so they've already had sufficient time. OPPOSE HB2570 temporary non-expansion area (Griffin) allows for establishment of temporary non-expansion areas that would limit new irrigated agriculture, but that would expire after ten years. There is also a high bar for even establishing them. We don't need temporary measures that create the illusion that we are really doing something to address the serious groundwater issues we have. OPPOSE  House Regulatory Oversight Committee at 2:00 PM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. HB2056 geoengineering; prohibition (Fink) is a bit over the top relative to how it approaches concerns about geoengineering and seems to go down the conspiracy theory road. We wish they would focus on the climate manipulation that is actually happening -- all the carbon, methane, and other greenhouse gases that are being put into the atmosphere. OPPOSE Wednesday, January 29th   House Government Committee at 9:00 AM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. HB2099 governor; attorney general; duties; immigration (Martinez: Biasiucci, Carbone, et al.) requires the governor and attorney general to cooperate with the federal government on immigration issues, read deportations. OPPOSE HB2319 private property; design; regulations; prohibition (Gillette: Carbone, Hendrix, et al) significantly limits cities' ability to adopt regulations that affect individually owned single family lots. The language is overly broad and could undermine protections for the larger community putting property rights above all else. OPPOSE Senate Government Committee at 9:00 AM SB1092 vehicle mileage; tracking; tax; prohibitions (Hoffman: Chaplik, Hendrix, et al) prohibits limits on vehicle miles traveled or any travel reduction program, contrary to air quality requirements. OPPOSE SB1093 government investments; products; fiduciaries; plans (Hoffman: Hendrix, Keshel) prohibits the state treasurer from considering any social factors in state investments. OPPOSE SB1094 business; discrimination prohibition; social criteria (Hoffman: Keshel) prohibits banks, insurance companies, and credit reporting agencies from considering any social or environmental factors. OPPOSE SCR1004 prohibit tax; monitoring; vehicle mileage (Hoffman: Chaplik, Keshel) refers the provisions of SB1092 to the ballot. OPPOSE House Federalism, Military Affairs, & Elections Committee at 2:00 PM HB2004 voter registration cards; mailing limitation (Gillette) limits county recorders from mailing voter registration cards to people out of state. OPPOSE HB2673 early ballots; deadlines; foreign money (Kolodin: Montenegro) makes it easier to remove people from the active early voting list. OPPOSE HCR2013 early ballots; deadlines; foreign money (Kolodin: Biasiucci, Blackman, et al) refers the provisions of HB2673 to the ballot. OPPOSE House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee at 2:00 PM HB2234 Interstate 11; environmental; engineering; study (Martinez: Carter P, Gress) directs the Arizona Department of Transportation to conduct the Tier 2 engineering study for I-11. This freeway would cause great harm by fragmenting habitat and opening up more areas for development. OPPOSE Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee at 2:00 PM SB1052 voter registration; temporary absence (Rogers: Gillette) takes away US citizens' eligibility to vote if they have never resided in the US. It makes no sense that they keep further restricting who can vote. OPPOSE Senate Public Safety Committee at 2:00 PM SB1086 transportation system performance; ADOT (Hoffman: Keshel) de-emphasizes congestion management and promotes mobility as a performance standard and includes specific provisions for how these and other factors are considered. It prohibits ADOT from considering or adopting a motor vehicle travel mile reduction target or any other demand management policy or project to reduce traffic. This is short-sighted and harmful and should be rejected. OPPOSE

Legislative Report & Request to Speak Actions on bad voting bills

(Condensed version of the Sierra Club's Legislative Update)

This week, the 57th Legislature, First Regular Session, kicked off with the Governor's State of the State address -- well and a short prebuttal by Senate President Warren Petersen, who basically said whatever the Governor is for, he is against. Governor Hobbs focused on education, reproductive rights, housing, and water. On water, she talked about the need for limits in rural Arizona and also for developers to be accountable. You can listen to her full speech here or read it here.

Already legislators have introduced hundreds of bills, many of them concerning, including more harmful water legislation, measures to hinder voting, especially early voting, and bills to weaken environmental protection. We have started the bill tracker, but have not filled it out completely yet. You can see the tracker here.

Not unexpectedly, the Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee passed SB1011 early voting; ballot deadlines; certificates (Petersen: Angius, Bolick, et al.) along party lines. It removes authorization for counties to establish emergency voting centers, changes the deadline for dropping off early ballots to the Friday before the election, requires ID for early voting rather than merely allowing people to drop off their early ballot in the signed envelope as we do now. This would result in longer lines and more confusion and generally make early voting more difficult.

The Governor's budget was released today and included several line items related to water, air, waste, and parks. She is asking for $3 million to fund litigation on the Colorado River allocations as Arizona continues to fight with other states over an over allocated river that is stretched beyond its limits. She asks for additional funding for the Arizona Department of Water Resources to fund six additional full-time employees. There is funding for working on state implementation plans to meet Clean Air Act requirements and some funding related to the Iron King Mine, a federal Superfund Site. Of note, this year, the Governor included some funding for the State Parks Heritage Fund -- $2.5 million. While that is far from the $10 million it should be getting, it is better than the big zero it got last year. This is just her proposal and the Legislature is unlikely to embrace it.

REQUEST TO SPEAK ACTIONS 

Don't forget to start registering support or opposition to bills with the Request to Speak system. Note that you do not have to speak if you use the system, you can just sign on the RTS app with a position on bills. If you have not created an account on the Request to Speak System, I encourage you to do so.

Sign onto Request to Speak Here: 

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

If you haven't signed up for the system, you can find the form here: 

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

You can weigh in on bills while they are still in committee. For directions on how to navigate the system, try:

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

Tuesday, January 21st

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

Presentations:

• Overview of the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA)
• Overview of Active Management Areas (AMAs) & Irrigation Non-Expansion Areas (INAs)
• Overview of the Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ)

• HCM2003 stormwater; groundwater; recharge; urging support (Griffin) asks that the Arizona Department of Water Resources and State Land Department develop specific recharge projects on state trust lands. 331 sites have been identified by ADWR as having high potential for groundwater recharge. SUPPORT  *
• HCR2016 reinstatement; WIFA monies (Griffin) is a resolution asking for reinstatement of the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) dollars. As most of these dollars are focused on funding out-of-state augmentation projects, we cannot support this. OPPOSE

Wednesday, January 22nd
 

Senate Government Committee at 9:00 AM 

• HB2099 governor; attorney general; duties; immigration (Martinez: Biasiucci, Carbone, et al.) requires the governor and attorney general to cooperate with the federal government on immigration issues, read deportations. OPPOSE

House Federalism, Military Affairs, & Elections Committee at 2:00 PM

Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• HB2006 election mailings; third-party disclosures (Gillette) requires organizations that distribute official election-related documents, or documents that resemble official election-related documents, to include the words Not from a Government Agency in boldfaced on the outside of the envelope. This is an attempt to make outreach more difficult for those encouraging voting. OPPOSE
• HB2017 voting centers ban; precinct size (Keshel) prohibits the Board of Supervisors from authorizing the use of voting centers, removes language allowing a County Recorder to establish on-site early voting locations and limits the size of election precincts to a maximum of 1,000 registered voters. All of these will hinder not help people voting early. OPPOSE
• HCR2002 voting centers; precinct voting (Keshel) is the same as the measure above, except that it would go to the ballot. OPPOSE

Thursday, January 23rd

Extreme Heat in Arizona and Heat Relief Funding at Noon!

Join the Sierra Club for a compelling and timely webinar presented by Rev. Katie Sexton, Executive Director of Arizona Faith Network, addressing the urgent issue of extreme heat in Arizona and its wide-ranging impacts on vulnerable communities, public health, and regional economies. Arizona faces record-breaking heat year after year, with Phoenix and Tucson ranking among the fastest-warming cities in the nation. Extreme heat amplifies ongoing challenges such as water scarcity, air pollution, environmental racism, and rising healthcare costs, further deepening inequities across our state. Tragically, we have seen hundreds of people die each year throughout the state due to this climate emergency, underscoring the urgent need for immediate action. In this session, Rev. Sexton will explore the need for legislative advocacy for heat relief funding, along with rapid response efforts and ongoing support to help mitigate the climate emergency and protect Arizona's most vulnerable populations.

12:00 PM
RSVP for the Zoom link

*This is Sustainable Tucson's take on this particular bill 

Weigh in on Plan Tucson by January 31, 2025

Here is your opportunity to have a say on the future of Tucson by weighing in on Plan Tucson.

City boards and commissions apply to the plan when implementing Mayor & Council guidance and making recommendations. City staff refer to the plan for direction on their roles. And citizens can also refer to it when making recommendations. 

The preliminary draft of the Plan Tucson 2025 General Plan Update was released last month and the city is looking for feedback. The deadline is January 31st at 5 p.m. 

https://www.plantucson.org/plan-tucson-2025-preliminary-draft-surveys

 Online Surveys – Individual Engagement

Explore the preliminary draft at your own pace and provide feedback through the online Plan Tucson 2025 Preliminary Draft Surveys. Surveys for individuals cover:

• Overview and Implementation [Chapters 1, 2, and 5]: These chapters cover the plan overview, history of Tucson, characterization of Tucson today, and plan implementation. 

• Values, Goals, and Policies [Chapter 3]: This chapter covers the draft plan's fourteen goals and associated policies. Provide feedback on as many goals as you like.  

• Future Growth Scenario Map [Chapter 4]: This Chapter focuses on the draft map depicting future growth patterns and development guidelines for the City.

While the Plan Tucson document is admittedly very long, you can scroll down to the sections that are important to you. I recommend checking out Chapter 3, Values Goals and Policies.

Your input is vital to shaping Tucson's future. Visit the Plan Tucson website to review materials and participate in the planning process.

For questions, contact plantucson@tucsonaz.gov.

Time for Action! Speak to Your Legislators at Environmental Day at the Capitol

Join us for the annual lobby day, Environmental Day at the Capitol, to advocate for environmental issues in our state. This is an opportunity to meet with your legislators, hear from great speakers, and connect with others who are doing advocacy work both inside and outside the Arizona Legislature. No experience necessary. The Sierra Club will be providing online trainings and workshops leading up to this day. They also provide one-sheets on bills they support that protect the environment. Join a small group of fellow citizens from your district to speak to your legislators or just enjoy the presentations! 

Time to Act! Extreme Heat & Climate Justice

Environmental Day at the Arizona Capitol

February 12th, 2025

Arizona Capitol - Wesley Bolin Plaza

1700 W. Washington St.

Phoenix, AZ 85007

RSVP and Register Here.

Please mark your calendar and RSVP. It is important to register so we know what legislative district you are in and also can plan for food and materials. Also, sign up for the free bus that is provided from Tucson.