Great day rallying for water at Environmental Day at the Capitol! Keep the momentum going by contacting Sen. T.J. Shope.

We had a great day at Environmental Day at the Capitol. While tabling for Sustainable Tucson, Sen. Priya Sundareshan from our district (LD18) stopped by to thank me for promoting the Rural Groundwater Protection bills, SB1425 and HB2714. These bipartisan bills finally offer much needed water protections for rural communities that are suffering from over-pumping. Over-pumping was emptying the aquifer causing sinkholes in the Willcox area. Sen. Priya Sundareshan and Rep. Chris Mathis (LD18) worked with several Republican politicians on the bill - including the Mayor of Willcox. 

Me and  Rep. Sarah Liguori

The other bill that we were excited to promote was the Rainwater Harvesting Appropriation bill, HB2644. It provides up to $2000 for hiring a licensed contractor to install a residential rainwater harvesting system (up to $2000 for rain tanks and $500 for catchment basins, no more than $2000 in total). We got involved with this bill when we were contacted by AZ ANNHPI for Equity for feedback, so it was great running into Rep. Sarah Liguori (LD5), who introduced HB2644. If you check out my Sustainable Living Tucson blog, you'll see how I love our rainwater harvesting cisterns and basins. Last year, my husband Dan Stormont did a rainwater harvesting presentation for Environmental Day, and people from around the state asked where they could get rainwater harvesting incentives. HB2644 would fit the bill! 

Jana Segal, Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, Adriana Bachmann 

Next we had meeting with Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, who warmly greeted us. I congratulated her for getting her School Lunch bill (HB2213) heard in committee. Then I encouraged her to support the two water bills. I am delighted that she is on the Appropriations Committee that will be hearing the Rainwater Harvesting Appropriation bill! 

I ran into Sen. Thomas "TJ" Shope, one of the legislators supporting HB2644, outside of the Senate building and thanked him. Inspired by his dedication to water, I rallied everyone I met to contact him and ask him to hear the Rural Groundwater bill in the Natural Resources committee that he chairs. Thanks to this kind woman who called the senator on the spot! 

Please, take a few minutes to contact Sen. Shope and urge him to hear SB1425 in his committee...

Sen. Thomas "T.J." Shope, district 16, TSHOPE@azleg.gov (602) 926-3012

And while you're at it, congratulate Rep. Nancy Gutierrez for getting HB2213 through the Education and Appropriations committees! 

Rep. Nancy Gutierrez -- Assistant Minority Leader, district 18 D, NGUTIERREZ@az.gov, (602) 926-4134

#lovemyrainbasin

MORE INFORMATION 

Environmental groups outline legislative priorities, target bills to support and oppose - by Joan Meiners, Arizona Republic

Ask Members of the House Appropriations Committee to vote "yes" on Free Lunches (for Children from low income families)

ACTION! 🤩👋

HB2213, sponsored by Nancy Gutierrez (D-18), which would fund free school lunches for children whose families meet the federal income requirements for free or reduced-price lunches, is scheduled for House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday at 2.. Contact House Appropriations Committee chair David Livingston (R-28) at dlivingston@azleg.gov or 602-926-4178 to thank him for hearing the bill and urge him to support it. Then contact the members of the committee (especially Republicans) to ask them to vote YES.

UPDATE: 

Congratulations Rep. Nancy Gutierrez for getting HB2213 through the Education and Appropriations committees! A few more committees to go then to a vote in the house and senate. 

Rep. Nancy Gutierrez (D-18)

David Livingston (R-28) - Chair, dlivingston@azleg.gov, 602-926-4178
Matt Gress (R-4) - Vice Chair, mgress@azleg.gov, 602-926-4105
Walt Blackman (R-7) wblackman@azleg.gov, 602-926-3244
Lupe Diaz (R-19) ldiaz@azleg.gov, 602-926-4852
Chris Lopez (R-16) clopez@azleg.gov. 602-926-3445
Justin Olson (R-10) jolson@azleg.gov, 602-926-3376
Quang Nguyen (R-1) qnguyen@azleg.gov. 602-926-3258
Tony Rivero (R-27)trivero@azleg.gov, 602-926-3528
Michael Way (R-15) mway@azleg.gov, 602-926-3433
Jeff Weninger (R-13) jweninger@azleg.gov, 602-926-3392

Julie Willoughby (R-13), jwilloughby@azleg.gov, 602-926-4153

Democrats
Lorena Austin (D-9) laustin@azleg.gov, 602-926-3968
Seth Blattman (D-9) sblattman@azleg.gov, 602-926-3996
Nancy Gutierrez (D-18) ngutierrez@azleg.gov, 602-926-4134
Stephanie Stahl Hamilton (D-21) sstahlhamilton@azleg.gov, 602-926-3279
Mariana Sandoval (D-23), msandoval@azleg.gov, 602-926-3740
Stacey Travers (D-12) stravers@azleg.gov, 602-926-3917
Kevin Volk (D-17)kvolk@azleg.gov, 602-926-3498

More information:

“Kids Can’t Learn When They’re Hungry!” Representative Nancy Gutierrez Brings Up Bill to Fund Free School Meals for Vulnerable Children - Blog for Arizona 

Push back on more bad bills at the AZ Legislature this week.

After all the negative bills last week, I thought you could use some good news.

Rep. Nancy Gutierrez's bill, HB 2213, which would fund free school lunches for children whose families meet the federal income requirements for free or reduced-price lunches, passed in the AZ House Education Committee by 9-3! If you are in district 18 and want to thank her for the hard work, her number is (602) 926-4134.

Next action... Contact the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. David Livingston (R-28) at 602-926-4178 (dlivingston@azleg.gov) and ask him to put the bill on his agenda.

Now back to our Request to Speak actions. There's less than last week, so that's good. And even one bill that supports EVs. Please weigh in on the following bills on the Request to Speak app anytime while they are still in committee.

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

Directions on how to navigate the system:

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

Monday, February 3rd

House Land, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs at 2:00 PM 

• HB2201 technical correction; electricity; power authority (Griffin) will have a strike-everything amendment on S/E: wildfire mitigation planning; utilities; approval. The strike-everything basically gives the utilities near immunity for negligence related to wildfires. The wildfire mitigation plan is automatically approved once submitted. The ACC can request changes, but the power authority doesn't have to make them. This bill makes it nearly impossible to hold the power authority responsible for the damages they cause. OPPOSE

House Federalism, Military Affairs, & Elections Committee

• HB2703 early voting; tabulation; ballot deadlines (Hendrix: Chaplik, Heap, et al) moves up the deadline for early ballots to 7pm the Friday before the election, and requires those with early ballots on Election Day to show ID and go through the lines. It eliminates emergency voting too. OPPOSE

Tuesday, February 4th

Senate Natural Resources Committee at 2:00 PM
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• Presentation
  • The State of Agriculture in Arizona, Patrick Bray, Executive Vice President, Arizona Farm and Ranch Group
• SB1113 renewable energy; public service corporations (Dunn) requires utilities to have the right of first refusal to construct, own, or maintain any renewable energy resource in Arizona thus giving utilities a potential monopoly on renewables. Why only renewables? Why not gas plants? This is a terrible bill that could block a lot of renewables. OPPOSE
• SB1114 assured water supply; analysis; availability (Dunn) is an emergency measure that requires the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) to issue a Certificate of Assured Water Supply based on outdated certificates and allows other developers to claim the estimated water savings, up to 15 percent. This creates another way around the assured water supply requirements. OPPOSE 
• SB1260 assured water supply; agricultural water (Dunn) allows the Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) to designate a portion of the city or town that is located on lands served by a contracted agricultural water company as having an assured water supply. OPPOSE

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

• Presentations:
  • Jim Robb, President & CEO, North American Electric Reliability Company (NERC)
  • Melanie Frye, President & CEO, Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC)
• HB2223 wind farms; construction; policies; procedures (Marshall: Blackman, Diaz, et al) includes numerous mandates for wind energy generation facilities, including that counties require them to have a bond to indemnify the county from anything related to the wind farm. This is not required of other power generation facilities and is totally unnecessary. OPPOSE
• HB2527 corporation commission; electricity; reliability; management (Olson) prohibits the Arizona Corporation Commission from authorizing a power plant retirement unless there is a new plant with equal or greater power. It requires that all replacement resources for power plant retirements be thermal (gas, coal, or nuclear) and precludes them from being renewable resources. The effect would likely be to keep coal plants running longer costing ratepayers more dollars -- solar is cheaper than coal. Due to its rate impacts and the restrictions on the ACC, it is also likely unconstitutional. OPPOSE
• HCR2044 minerals; metals; supporting domestic supply(Griffin: Bliss, Carter P, et al) is another promotion for mining, including uranium mining, and asks for streamlining in permitting. Streamlining involves cutting out the public processes and further ignoring environmental and cultural concerns. OPPOSE

House Regulatory Oversight Committee at 2:00 PM

• HCR2038 rulemaking; legislative ratification; regulatory costs (Kolodin)
  is similar to Proposition 315, which was defeated by the voters in November. It refers a measure to the ballot that emphasizes regulatory costs over benefits to the citizens. OPPOSE

Wednesday, February 5th
 

Senate Regulatory Affairs and Government Efficiency Committee at 9:00 AM 

• SB1229 planning; home design; restrictions; prohibition (Bolick: Bravo, Diaz, et al) Takes away power from municipalities to enforce their zoning requirements. Which means that owners can build anything on their lots as long as it complies with building codes (which are more lenient.)  OPPOSE 
• SB1352 rezoning; administrative act; referral prohibited (Gowan) says a rezoning is an administrative act rather than legislative act and therefore is not referable by citizen petition to the ballot. This would limit communities' ability to stop a rezoning and put it before the voters.  Basically, this messy bill will prevent public opposition to rezoning applications. OPPOSE
• SB1353 municipal development; permits; review (Gowan).allows permitting to be outsourced if a city does not approve, amend, etc. a permit in 15 days. This would just push cities to churn out permits and privatize local government further. OPPOSE

Senate Government Committee at 9:00 AM

• SB1256 diversity; equity; inclusion; training; prohibition (Hoffman) prohibits the state from using diversity, equity, and inclusion programs for hiring, training, and promotions. The bill sponsor could benefit from training in this area. OPPOSE
• SB1313 municipalities; counties; recycling; prohibition (Hoffman: Chaplik, Keshel, et al) says cities and counties should not ask people to place anything in a recycling bin that is not being "actively recycled" at the time of the bill's passage. This would prevent future expansion of recycling programs. OPPOSE
• SCR1008 municipalities; counties; vote; fee increases (Petersen) refers a measure to the ballot to require that cities and counties have a two-thirds vote to increase any fees, taxes, etc. This will tie the hands of local government just as it has the legislature, except that the legislature has developed several work-around processes. This is government overreach. The state shouldn't mandate that municipalities have a 2/3 vote to increase fees. OPPOSE

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

• HB2440 attorney general; election certification; prohibition (Keshel: Biasiucci, Chaplik, et al) prohibits prosecution of a county supervisor for failure to certify an election. OPPOSE

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee at 2:00 PM 

• HB2300 electric vehicle charging stations; report (Biasiucci) requires that public and private charging stations be reported to the Department of Transportation and that the department develop and post a list. SUPPORT

Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee at 2:00 PM

• SB1152 early voting; mailing date (Gowan) reduces early voting from 27 days prior to the election to 21 days before an election. This limits the amount of time for early voting and could affect voter turnout and burden election workers further. OPPOSE
• SB1280 cast vote record; public record (Finchem: Rogers) requires a county recorder to make available the name, voter ID, and party of every person who voted only one hour after an election. This is an impossible and unnecessary measure. OPPOSE