AZ Legislature Update and Report Card

On Wednesday, August 30th, Sierra Club along with Chispa Arizona issued an Environmental Report Card for the Arizona Legislature and Governor. Once again, the highly partisan session resulted in most Republicans earning a failing grade on the report card. The good news is 32 legislators earned an "A" on the report card and voted time after time against anti-democracy and anti-environmental bills.

The 2023 Legislative Session was the longest session on record, officially spanning 204 days and finally wrapping up on July 31st. The session included significant breaks as there were vacancies, negotiations, and reluctance by some in the majority to adjourn as they wanted to keep an eye on the Governor. Very little of note was accomplished, however, and Governor Hobbs’ veto stamp got a workout as legislators sent up a slew of bad ideas.

The attacks on democratic processes this session were again significant and frequent with more than 200 bills introduced seeking to limit early voting, make voting more difficult, and limit the initiative and referendum process, and other efforts to hinder democracy. A measure to require a proportionate number of signatures from each legislative district for initiatives and referenda, SCR1015, was referred and will be on the ballot in 2024. If passed, it would make it extremely difficult to qualify a measure for the ballot.

2023 brought new attacks on transportation as the majority in the Arizona Legislature sought to put a stop to light rail expansion and really any substantial funding for transit, bicycle and pedestrian safety or anything that did not involve concrete or asphalt. Senator Jake Hoffman led the way in introducing anti-transit, anti-bike measures with five bills – SB1312, SB1313, SB1314, SB1697, and SCR1018 specifically targeting multi-modal transportation. All of these bills died in either the Senate or House.

Some positive highlights of the session included important provisions in the budget, SB1720, including $6 million for the State Parks Heritage Fund, $7 million for the Upper Verde State Park, $3.5 million for planning passenger rail service between Phoenix and Tucson, $300,000 for trees for schools, and $9 million for Economic Transition Resources for capital projects, economic sustainability developments, renewable energy projects and broadband projects located within twenty miles of the Kayenta Coal Mine.

Nearly all of the Republican caucus earned an “F” on the Environmental Report Card this session as they pushed and supported bills to limit transit, consideration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues, and to hinder voting. There were 32 senators and representatives and Governor Hobbs who earned an “A.” 

The Sierra Club report card is available on the website in English here and Spanish here.

You can also view the news briefing we conducted on YouTube here.

Speak out about legislators making a mockery of democracy #1

GOP Legislators make a mockery of our democracy

Let's start with the good news... highways; bicycle paths; walkways; prohibition (Hoffman) failed in the Senate 14-15-1. Had it passed, it would have prohibited the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) from planning, designing, or constructing bicycle paths or pedestrian walkways and accepting federal monies conditioned on the design and construction of a bicycle path or pedestrian walkway. Senate Democrats and Senator Carroll voted no to stop this bad bill. Sadly three other bills to hinder efforts to plan for reducing vehicle travel passed. GOP’s power grab Republican lawmakers are refusing to hear Democrat-introduced bills unless 16+ Republicans sign on, essentially requiring a supermajority to pass legislation. This means that just a few Republicans can control whether legislation moves forward or not, even if it has bipartisan support from a majority of lawmakers. The rule is just another anti-democratic tactic the GOP is using in their power grab, because they know they aren’t truly representing the people of Arizona. This week, the Arizona House and Senate considered a whole bunch of bills on the floor, most of which advanced from one house to the other. Among them were numerous bills that are significant attacks on both voting rights and direct democracy via the citizen initiative and referendum process. So there is a call-in action in addition to the Request to Speak action this week. NOTE: Since there is a call-in action (see below) in addition to Request to Speak, I will be sending a second email with the remaining bills being heard on Wednesday and Thursday later. Please, sign onto Request to Speak to weigh in on the following bills before they go for a vote in committee:  https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon Directions for navigating the RTS system here: http://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2018/03/request-to-speak-time.html

Monday, March 6th House Committee on Land, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs at 2:00 PM SB1002 appropriation; livestock loss board (NOW: livestock compensation; appropriation) (Kern) appropriates $250,000 for this Livestock Loss Board to compensate the livestock industry for livestock killed or injured by wolves. We do not support this board as it does not encourage more responsible stewardship relative to cattle, sheep, etc. and those who benefit from the fund serve on the board. OPPOSE Senate Committee on Elections at 2:00 PM HB2308 secretary of state; election; recusal (Jones, Harris, McGarr, et al.) prohibits the Secretary of State from taking action in the portion of an election in which they are a candidate. OPPOSE HB2415 active early voting lists; removal (Biasiucci: Bliss, Carbone) removes voters from the active early voting list if they fail to vote early in one election cycle, instead of two. This will result in a significant purge of this list and in fewer people voting. OPPOSE Senate Committee on Finance at 2:00 PM HB2472 social credit; use; prohibition (Montenegro) prohibits the state from requiring a bank or financial institution to use a social credit score when the bank or financial institution evaluates whether to lend money to a customer. OPPOSE Tuesday, March 7th House Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water at 2:00 PM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. SB1257 water resources; assistant director  (Petersen) requires the Department of Water Resources director to appoint an assistant director that only works with the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority on augmentation and instate storage. This would put even more resources into augmentation versus conservation. Why not have this person focus on that? Or on adjudications? Or on establishing additional active management areas (AMA) or irrigation non-expansion areas (INA)? Or any of the myriad water issues that would help us better be prepared and help address our water shortages. This bill has no additional funding for this position. OPPOSE Wednesday, March 8th Senate Committee on Government at 9:30 AM HB2373 permits; automated permitting platform (Biasiucci: Contreras, L. Hernandez, et al.) allows for online solar permit compliance and removes requirement for a diagram. SUPPORT This week, please ask your Arizona representatives to oppose two measures to make it more difficult to get initiatives on the ballot and to get them passed. Use the button below to take action. NOTE: Some legislators may be more inclined to open personal emails or keep tabs of their phone messages - rather than petitions.  Here are the links for reaching out to them.  How to find out who your new legislators are: 1) Look up your district by putting in your address here: https://irc-az.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/lookup/index.html?appid=424810a4667049388ef6df4f0c73098b 2) Use that district to find your two state Representatives and contact info here: https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/?body=H The framers of the Arizona Constitution saw the initiative process, including proposed constitutional amendments, as an important check on the legislature and a way to advance important issues when the legislature refuses to act, such as early on recognizing women’s right to vote. Over the years, measures such as providing funds for parks and wildlife and increasing the minimum wage, have advanced via the initiative process. The following measures are intended to whittle away at this important constitutional right to direct democracy and make it more difficult for the people of Arizona to pass policies that are important to our future. Please ask your Arizona representatives to oppose the following bills! SCR1002 constitutional amendments; sixty percent approval (Kern) refers the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment to require sixty percent approval for any proposed constitutional amendment. Ironically, SCR1002 requires a simple majority to pass on the ballot to then require 60 percent approval going forward. If a simple majority or less is okay for electing a governor, a secretary of state, an attorney general, and you all, it should certainly be enough for adopting ballot measures, including proposed constitutional amendments. SCR1015 initiative; referendum; signatures; legislative districts (Mesnard: Bennett, Kaiser, et al.) refers to the ballot a measure that requires a proportionate number of signatures from each legislative district to even put an initiative on the ballot, allowing one legislative district to block a statewide measure and making it even more expensive to put something on the ballot. --- If you have not signed up yet for the Request to Speak system to voice your position in support or opposition to bills, we encourage you to do so now as you will need to get the account activated at the Capitol. Here is a link for signing up. To learn more about how to use the Request to Speak System, you can sign up for one of the trainings sponsored by Civic Engagement Beyond Voting. Here is their sign-up link.

Call Legislators on bad transportation and investment bills

 

Next week, few committees are meeting as well as the House and Senate continue to move bills from one chamber to the other. And a bit of good news from this week, SB1502 corporation commission; electric generation resources (Carroll: Kerr, Griffin), which seeks to pre-empt the renewable energy standard or any subsequent clean energy standard at the Arizona Corporation Commission by codifying a weak standard, failed on Third Read in the Senate 14-15-1. It may come back for reconsideration, however, so we are keeping an eye on it.  Both HB2471 and SB1500 (government investments; plans; fiduciaries; products) are moving in the House and Senate. They require a fiduciary to take into account only pecuniary factors when evaluating an investment, so they cannot consider environmental, social, or governance factors. The bills also prescribe requirements and prohibitions relating to the State Treasurer's investments, again prohibiting consideration of anything social or environmental. If you have not done so already, please send a message to your state senator and representatives and ask them to oppose HB2471 and SB1500 by using this link. NOTE: Some legislators may be more inclined to open personal emails or keep tabs of their phone messages.  Here are the links for reaching out to them.  How to find out who your new legislators are: 1) Look up your district by putting in your address here: https://irc-az.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/lookup/index.html?appid=424810a4667049388ef6df4f0c73098b 2) Use that district to find your state Senator and contact info here: https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/?body=S 3) Use that district to find your two state Representatives and contact info here: https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/?body=H It is irresponsible to not include ways to reduce motor vehicle traffic and accommodate other transportation, including bicycles, in our planning and it runs contrary to our air quality plans, which include goals for reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Unfortunately, the Arizona Legislature is seeking to limit local government and the Arizona Department of Transportation's (ADOT) ability to plan for transit and bikes and reduce vehicle travel. Already, the Arizona Senate passed the following two bills along party lines (16-13-1) this past week. SB1313 general plan; transportation; independent study (Hoffman) prohibits general plans from including policies or projects that reduce vehicle traffic and removes element from the general plan regarding multimodal transportation.  SB1314 transportation system performance; ADOT (Hoffman) changes performance factors to de-emphasize congestion relief and connecting with multi-modal transportation, plus prohibits adopting a motor vehicle travel mile reduction target or any other demand-management policy or project.  Still coming up are the following two bills. Please ask your senator to oppose both of these bills by using the link below. Or you can call or email them. Make sure to mention that you are from their district. SB1697 highways; bicycle paths; walkways; prohibition (Hoffman) prohibits the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) from planning, designing, or constructing bicycle paths or pedestrian walkways and accepting federal monies conditioned on the design and construction of a bicycle path or pedestrian walkway.  SCR1018 prohibit tax; monitoring; vehicle (Hoffman) refers to the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit any fees based on vehicle miles traveled. As we reduce reliance on gasoline and gasoline-powered vehicles, gas tax revenues will decrease and other ways to fund road maintenance are needed such as looking at vehicle miles traveled. https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Arizona?actionId=AR0382066&id