AZ legislature loves traffic and unsustainable development

The Arizona Legislature is back in session and those in power are up to their old tricks. This week several bills are being proposed that weaken environmental protections for some state utilities and departments. There is even a bill, SB1013, that prohibits the state treasurer from considering any social or environmental factor when investing state dollars.

SB1014 goes even farther. It prohibits a financial institution, insurer or credit reporting agency from considering an environmental, social, or governmental score or similar values-based or impact criteria in their decisions. This would include not being able to divest from fossil fuels.

Rep. Gail Griffin (District 14) is wielding her power as the chair of the House Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee to push through some bad bills that benefit her personally as a realtor. HB2028 requires Arizona Department of Water Resources to assume that unpledged long-term storage credits (paper water) are available for use in a groundwater model and relative to evaluating whether or not there is an assured water supply. This is another way to allow for unsustainable development in areas that really do not have an assured water supply.

These bills must be approved in committees before going to a vote on the floor. You can weigh in on the bills (listed below) by using the Request to Speak (RTS) app any time before they are heard in committee.

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

There are more bad bills to come. If you haven't already, please, register for the RTS system here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdjBMoAJrjHD57GGegmdUCKAowcr93K4vQA6a7_AjyElBtrQ/viewform

Tuesday, January 16th

Senate Transportation, Technology, and Missing Children Committee at 9:00 AM

• SB1012 transportation system performance; ADOT(Hoffman: Wadsack, Heap, et al) Redefines all the transportation performance factors to emphasize automobile traffic over other modes of transit. Also, prohibits ADOT from considering any plans that would reduce the number of vehicle miles traveled. OPPOSE
• SCR1002 prohibit tax; monitoring; vehicle mileage (Hoffman: Kern, Petersen, et al) refers to the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit fees based on vehicle miles traveled, an alternative to gas tax or other fees to pay for roads. OPPOSE

Joint House and Senate Appropriations Committees at 10:00 AM
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• Presentation
  • Executive Budget Proposal by Governor's Office of Strategic Planning and Budgeting - Sarah Brown, Director

House Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee at 2:00 PM

• HB2002 power plants; transmission lines; definition (Griffin) excludes switchyards and substations from review by the AZ Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee. This is one of the few entities that considers environmental factors relative to siting. We're concerned that they are adding even more exemptions to siting after exempting some lines in 2023. OPPOSE

• HB2003 replacement lines; structures; commission hearings (Griffin) allows utilities to replace structures on a transmission line without pursuing a new or amended certificate of environmental compatibility. This could mean replacing a low voltage pole with a much higher one and with significantly more impact. OPPOSE
• HB2004 utilities; electronic filings; corporation commission (Griffin) allows a utility to submit an application for a certificate of environmental compatibility for a power plant, transmission line, etc. in an electronic format. This would save a lot of paper! SUPPORT
• HB2028 groundwater model; unpledged storage credits (Griffin) requires Arizona Department of Water Resources to assume that unpledged long-term storage credits are available for use in a groundwater model and relative to evaluating whether or not there is an assured water supply. This is another way to allow for unsustainable development in areas that really do not have an assured water supply. OPPOSE
• HB2057 appropriation; long-term water augmentation fund (Dunn) appropriates an additional $143,800,000 to the water augmentation fund, which is for augmentation projects outside Arizona. OPPOSE

Senate Appropriations Committee at 2:00 PM
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.
Presentation
• Joint Legislative Budget Committee – Baseline

Wednesday, January 17th

House Government Committee at 9:00 AM

• HB2100 administrative completeness review; licensing (Griffin) adds a sentence that directly contradicts the other sentence currently in the law, essentially saying that if an agency notifies an applicant that there are significant deficiencies in their license application, it will be marked complete. That makes absolutely no sense and contradicts the previous sentence that says when an agency provides notice that an application has defects it will not be marked complete. It goes on to add a paragraph that seems to say that an agency can't provide the status of an application during the review period - also contradicting the previous paragraphs. OPPOSE 

Senate Committee on Government at 10:00 AM

• SB1005 public monies; ideology training; prohibition (Hoffman: Wadsack, Chaplik, et al) prohibits public entities from requiring or spending public monies on a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program. OPPOSE
• SB1013 government investments; products; fiduciaries; plans (Hoffman: Wadsack, Heap, et al) prohibits the state treasurer from considering any social or environmental factors when investing state dollars. OPPOSE
• SB1014 business; discrimination prohibition; social criteria (Hoffman: Wadsack, Chaplik, et al) prohibits a financial institution, insurer or credit reporting agency from considering political affiliation, or social credit, environmental, social, or governmental score or similar values-based or impact criteria in their decisions. This would include not being able to divest from fossil fuels. OPPOSE

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.

Request to Speak on bill endangering washes and Citizens Initiatives

The State Legislature is back in session. Among the bills being proposed is one that makes it more difficult to advocate with citizens’ initiatives and another that puts our desert washes in jeopardy.

Please, make sure you are registered on the Request to Speak system so you can weigh in on bills while they are still in committee. Here is a link for signing up. 

NOTE: It may take a couple of days since someone has to go to the capitol to sign you up. 

Once you’re signed up, you can sign onto the Request to Speak system on the State Legislature website and select for or against a bill and write a short one or two sentence comment explaining your response. This becomes a part of public record. I have seen committee members ask to see RTS responses before voting on a bill. Sometimes it gives them courage to do the right thing when they know their constituents support that. Advocates like us stopped some bad water bills from going through in the past.

You can weigh in anytime before the bill is heard in committee. For example, you can do RTS on SCR1002 any time before it is heard at 2 p.m. on Monday. I suggest you get them all done at once while you’re on the site.

Here’s the written directions:

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

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.

It can be a little confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty quick and easy. Copy the bill number so you're ready to paste it into the Search Phrase box. (Example: SCR1002) 

Ready? If you've registered for Request to Speak sign in here:
https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon


Monday, January 23rd, Senate Committee on Elections at 2:00 PM 

SCR1002 constitutional amendments; sixty percent approval (Kern) continues the legislature’s attack on citizen ballot initiatives after they successfully got a ballot measure passed in the last election that would require any initiative that imposes a new tax to pass by a super-majority vote (60%). This, of course, is nearly impossible in the current political environment in Arizona. This bill would extend the supermajority requirement to ALL ballot initiatives – effectively killing the citizen initiative process. OPPOSE.

Tuesday, January 24th, House Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water at 2:00 PM

HB2056 dry washes; permit program exemption (Diaz: Carbone, Dunn, et al.) says that "dry washes" on private property are exempt from the Clean Water Act and state permitting. This is a bad idea as desert washes provide important benefits to our rivers and streams, recharge groundwater, provide flood protection, and limit sediments downstream. Besides, state law cannot exempt waters from federal law. OPPOSE

 
HB2442 temporary non-expansion area (Griffin) allows for establishment of temporary non-expansion areas that would limit new irrigated agriculture, but that would expire after five years. 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

Wednesday, January 25th

House Committee on Government at 9:00 AM

HCR2004 legislators; minimum age of eighteen (Gress: Aguilar, Austin, et al.) refers to the ballot a measure to change the minimum age to be a legislator from 25 to 18. This seems like a fine idea to get more young people engaged at the legislature. SUPPORT

House Committee on Municipal Oversight & Elections at 2:00 PM

HB2305 ballots; signature verification; observers (McGarr: Biasiucci, Carter, et al) requires county recorders to allow representatives of the two largest parties to have observers for every stage of the signature verification process. So unnecessary. OPPOSE

HB2308 secretary of state; election; recusal (Jones: Harris, McGarr, et al) limits the secretary of state from administering the election portion for which they are a candidate. OPPOSE