Utilities, Water and Mountain Lions. Oh, my!

Let's start with a little good news at the AZ Legislature. The House did defeat HB2588 wildlife; taking; landowner permits; rules . The bill ordered the Game and Fish Department to issue landowner permits for killing wildlife such as elk, deer, and antelope (it included oryx, which we do not even have in Arizona), and would have allowed these landowner tags to be expanded. HB2588 was a step toward privatizing wildlife and contrary to the public trust. Wildlife in the United States, unlike in many other countries, belongs to the people, not the government and not to individuals. All 27 Democrats were joined by 13 Republicans in defeating the bill.

But our quest to protect wildlife continues. Please, use the Sierra Club petition to urge your representatives to oppose HB2552 dogs; hunting; rules; prohibition that makes hound hunting allowable in statute, eliminating the discretion of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission to limit hunting with hounds during certain seasons or under certain conditions. HB2552 would sidetrack efforts to limit hound hunting of animals such as mountain lions.
 

Send a message to your representatives here

Unfortunately, the big electric utilities were at the legislature in force with a gaggle of lobbyists pushing for their terrible legislation. What we did not anticipate is that more Democrats would give Arizona Public Service (APS), Salt River Project (SRP), and Tucson Electric Power (TEP) a way to avoid responsibility for their action or inaction relative to wildfires. Unfortunately, the following Democrats joined with Republicans to pass HB2201:  Abeytia, Aguilar, Blattman, Connolly, L. Contreras, A. Hernandez, C. Hernandez,  L. Hernandez, Luna-Najera, Simacek, Travers, and Tsosie. The bill would not have passed without their support and is now in the Senate. If these are your representatives, please let them know you are disappointed with their vote on HB2201 and then urge them to vote "No" on the next big utility bill, HB2679.   You can find their emails and phone numbers here. 

https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Arizona?action

There are just a handful of new bills to weigh in on in the Request to Speak app. Please, weigh in on them before they are heard in committee. (The committee times are listed below.) 

Sign into the 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

Directions on how to navigate the system:

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

Tuesday, March 4th

Senate Natural Resource Committee at 1:30 PM

• HCR2016 reinstatement; WIFA monies (Griffin) This resolution commits to full funding of the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) dollars - especially the long-term water augmentation fund that seeks water importation projects. It would be better to focus funds on conservation and reuse rather than seeking sources from other states or countries that might not be as reliable. OPPOSE

Wednesday, March 4th

House Government Committee at 9:00 AM

• SB1013 municipalities; counties; fee increases; vote (Petersen) requires a two-thirds vote for any city or county to increase fees or taxes. This will tie the hands of local government relative to revenues, just as it has the legislature. OPPOSE

Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee at 1:30 PM

• 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 HB2017 above, except that it would go to the ballot. OPPOSE

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

• SB1142 elections; foreign contributions; prohibition (Finchem: Angius, Carroll, et al.) prohibits foreign funding for influencing elections, but also requires that everyone who files a report certify that they have not accepted any goods or in-kind contributions from a foreign entity. SUPPORT

Urge your senator to oppose bad water & voting bills before Wed.

Here are two actions from the Sierra Club. In addition to a terrible water bill, there is one that weakens our ability to vote. That will make it even more difficult to advocate for environmental issues and human rights. 

The Senate Elections Committee approved a strike-everything amendment on HCR2056 on Thursday. The amendment requires onsite tabulation of ballots on Election Day, limits the drop off of early ballots after 7pm on the Friday before the election, and requires identification to drop off any early ballot on Election Day. If passed, this would hinder voting, especially for Tribal and rural communities, create longer lines at the polls, and cost a great deal more than the $11 million that has been appropriated. Call your senator and ask them to vote no on HCR2056.

You can find senators' contact information here.

The Senate also tried to jam through a terrible water bill this week and unfortunately had the backing of the Governor to do it. On Tuesday, Senator Sine Kerr (R) offered a 28-page amendment on HB2201, which was already a bad bill. Her amendment made it much worse -- a Christmas Tree of bad bills written by and for developers, land speculators, private water companies, and two places -- Buckeye and Queen Creek -- that want the rules changed to get around the groundwater modeling and create big exemptions to the assured water supply program, so they can keep building the same old sprawl development. Believe me, we are not talking about affordable housing.

Thank you to Senate Democrats for standing strong against this bill. It was defeated 13-11-6, but it will be back for reconsideration next Wednesday. The development interests and the governor's office are lobbying hard to get this bill through, so we need senators to know that their constituents do not support it.
 

Please take action below and tell your senator to vote no on HB2201!

https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Arizona?actionId=AR0442640

Tell your state Reps to vote "no" on bad bills that limit Tucson's ability to protect the environment and voting

A bill that prohibits cities from planning bike paths advances at the AZ legislature

Despite our best efforts with Request to Speak, some bills still advanced to the House for a vote. Please, sign the petitions the Sierra Club provided to reach out to your Representatives to ask them to oppose these bills. Adding a personal comment helps. For even more impact, you can email your reps directly - using some of the talking points included on the petition.

Keep up the pressure against bills that would impede efforts to reduce traffic and promote transit and biking. Use this link to take action to oppose SB1312, SB1313, SB1314, and SCR1018.

Don't forget to ask your representatives to oppose SB1278, a bill to limit cities' and towns' ability to protect their residents via local building code provisions related to affordability, energy, and public health. Use this link to take action on SB1278.

Ask your representatives in the Arizona House to oppose bills that prohibit consideration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors when deciding on state investments. Use this link to ask them to vote NO on SB1139 and SB1500!

Most people in Arizona use early voting by mail as a safe and secure method of voting. Unfortunately, the Arizona Legislature is seeking to make that method of voting much more difficult and has introduced many bills to do so.

Ask your representatives to oppose SB1141 (early ballot drop off; identification).

It requires additional voter ID to drop off an early ballot. This is unnecessary as they already have the signature for verification. In the last election, people waited in lines for more than two hours to vote. This bill will make them longer. Use this link to reach out to your Representative on SB1141. 

Say "Hell NO!" to taking away Tucson's vote!

Urge Speaker of the House Ben Toma NOT to bring SCR 1023 to a vote on the house floor. 

SCR 1023 would repeal a provision of the Arizona Constitution that dates to territorial days that permits city voters to establish home rule. That enables them to make their own rules on matters of local concerns, such as how the local government is set up and how and when to run elections

Please, contact Rep. Ben Toma (District 27) & ask him not bring this disastrous bill to a vote in the COW.

Phone Number: 602-926-3298

Email: BToma@azleg.gov 

https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/56leg/1R/summary/S.SCR1023GOV.DOCX.htm

The GOP legislators want to make it pretty much impossible for us to vote!

Remember all their bills against mail-in voting!?

Over 80% of Tucsonans vote by mail. They don't want us to vote in Tucson! 

HB2229 would end mail-in voting except for military and overseas voters or voters temporarily living outside of the state. The bill text is straightforward: “Voting by mail is banned in this state.”

Remember these other bills that would make it difficult for us to vote?

HB2231 early absentee voting; limitations; conflicts (Harris: Heap, Jones, et al.) makes early voting into absentee voting and only allows someone to vote early under certain conditions. This would decrease voting significantly. 

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. 

 
SB1141 early ballot drop off; identification (Hoffman: Borrelli, Farnsworth, et al.) requires voter identification to just drop off an early ballot. This is unnecessary and will result in additional disenfranchisement. 

SB1566 voter registration; reregistration; ten years (Carroll: Gowan, Kaiser, et al.) Every 10 years everyone's voter registration will be removed from the rolls and they will be required to reregister. A nightmare for voters and the county recorders. 

The GOP wants to make the rules - so they can make it impossible for us to vote: 

SB1213 legislative council; procedures manual (Kern: Kolodin) substitutes legislative council for the secretary of state relative to the elections procedures manual. 

Hmm... Seems like they don't want us to vote... I wonder why?

More information: 

Amended bill seeks to strip Phoenix, Tucson city charters
Mesa also could have charter removed if voters have a say

Arizona Republicans Introduce Bills to Repeal Mail-in and Early Voting

Request to Speak on voting rights, farming irrigation and inclusivity on housing committee

weigh in on RTS to protect voting rights

This week there are several bills that make it more difficult to vote - especially HB2289 that prohibits all in-person early voting and eliminates vote by mail. 70% of us vote by mail! Please, weigh in on the voting bills as well as the farming irrigation, housing and hydrogen studies.

 
I've included a couple of bills that the Sierra Club suggested we monitor. One of the concerns I have is that they are Strike Everything bills. Strike Everything means legislators can make huge changes at the last moment (without public comment) after a bill has already gone through most of the process.

Sign on to your Request to Speak account, click the blue Request to Speak button, click on New Request in the nav bar (left column), then simply cut and paste the bill number into Search Phrase (for example:HB2554). Push blue Add Request button, weigh in FOR or AGAINST, click No on Do you wish to speak? (in person), leave a short Comment, and click on SUBMIT. For another submission, click on the New Request link in the nav bar on the left and follow the directions above.

Coming Up at the Arizona Legislature this Week. Monday, March 21st Senate Committee on Government at 2:00 PM HB2238 ballot drop boxes; prohibition (Hoffman: Barton, Blackman, et al.) prohibits unmonitored drop boxes for ballots. OPPOSE  HB2289 will have a strike-everything amendment on elections; identification; revisions; tabulation; mail-in that prohibits all in-person early voting and eliminates vote by mail, except for people who are visually impaired, are serving in the military overseas or who are hospitalized or out of the state on Election Day. This would affect most Arizonans as more than 70% of us vote by mail. OPPOSE HB2493 election integrity fund (Hoffman; Blackman, Chaplik, et al.) establishes an Election Integrity Fund to pay county recorders for election security measures and appropriates $12 million for it. This is so unnecessary. OPPOSE HB2602 polling places; emergency voting centers (Bolick: Biasiucci, Blackman, et al.) restricts the use of emergency voting centers to emergencies, such as war, civil unrest or natural disaster. This is ridiculous. OPPOSE HB2780 voter lists; images; voting records (Kavanagh: Barton, Biasiucci, et al.) requires a county recorder to publish a list of eligible voters, with certain identifying information redacted, on the county recorder's website 10 days before a primary and general election. It requires that they digitally publish a list of everyone who voted and their voting method, all ballot images and a sortable cast vote record. These are more unnecessary requirements feeding the conspiracies. OPPOSE HB2786 voter registrations; ballot requests; source (Hoffman: Barton, Biasiucci, et al) prohibits a county recorder from using the signature on a request to amend a voter's registration or a request for an early ballot that is not on an official form printed by a county recorder. It removes the ability for a candidate, political committee or other organization to distribute early ballot request forms or Active Early Voter List request forms to voters. OPPOSE Tuesday, March 22nd House Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, & Water at 2:00 PM HB2554 domestic water districts; wastewater; annexation (Shope) will have a strike-everything amendment on farm irrigation efficiency; fund; appropriation that establishes an on-farm irrigation efficiency pilot program opporated by the UArizona Coopertive Extention and appropriates $30 million for it. This could be positive in that it may help reduce agricultural water use. SUPPORT   House Committee on Commerce at 2:00 PM SB1396 hydrogen study committee (Shope) establishes a hydrogen study committee. It includes studying a pipeline and blending hydrogen with fracked gas infrastructure. There is no specific provision for studying green hydrogen -- hydrogen derived from water, not methane gas. There are also some other troubling provisions in it. OPPOSE Wednesday, March 23rd House Committee on Government and Elections at 9:00 AM SB1259 recounts; requests; procedures; audits (Mesnard) Increases the minimum number of precincts included in post-election hand counts and allows the attorney general, secretary of state, or Legislative Council to request an election recount. Again, this is unnecessary and harmful tinkering with election processes. OPPOSE SB1638 early ballots; visually impaired voters (Pace: Shah) requires all Arizona elections to provide for voting by the use of a remote accessible vote by mail option for persons who are blind or have a visual impairment. SUPPORT SCR1032 plenary legislative authority; elections (Townsend: Borrelli, Gowan, et al.) opposes any attempt by the federal government to "usurp or otherwise interfere" with state legislative authority over elections. This is intended to target voting rights bills at the federal level. OPPOSE Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water at 2:00 PM Presentation Economic Benefits of Glass Recycling in Arizona - Alex Cameron and Heidi Erm, Owens Corning HB2554 Now: counties; land divisions; surveys (Griffin) prohibits counties from requiring surveys as a condition for approving land divisions. This is the last thing we need as it will encourage more lot splits and harmful unregulated development. OPPOSE  HB2619 will have a strike everything amendment on rainwater harvesting program, but it is not yet posted. The original bill required the State Dept. of Health to post a vaccine injury data report on their website that passed the House on a party line vote. What does this have to do with rainwater harvesting? That's the beauty of Strike Everything. You might want to check back.  MONITOR   HCR2024 30x30 land program; opposing (Griffin) expresses the legislature's opposition to the Biden Administration's 30 by 30 program and other efforts to protect public lands from development, including as wilderness, conservation lands, etc. OPPOSE HCR2038 supporting proper forest management(Griffin) contains revisionist history regarding the history of national forests. It fails to recognize the impacts of commercial logging on forest health -- most of the larger trees were logged in Arizona, leaving more opportunities for the dense growth of smaller trees -- fire suppression, and livestock grazing. There is no mention of climate change. It seeks to repeat the mistakes of the past that have contributed to unhealthy forests. OPPOSE House Committee on Transportation at 2:00 PM SB1377 (now: off-highway vehicles; fund; instruction; operation) (Kerr: Rogers) says that landowners and lessees do not have a duty to keep lands safe for entry and use by recreational users or to warn of or maintain lands and trails against unsafe conditions. Don't we all have a duty to try to address unsafe conditions? OPPOSE Senate Committee on Commerce at 2:00 PM HB2674 Now: housing supply study committee (Kaiser: Chavez) establishes a housing supply study committee. This is better than the bill they were proposing, but the committee is not very inclusive. (You could make a commment to that effect.) All the members of the committee are appointed by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate (who are both Republicans.) The President of the Senate is the same one who rarely lets any bills sponsored by Democrats be heard on the floor.  MONITOR (Neutral)

Request to Speak on More Voter Suppression Bills

Bad voting bills coming up in the Arizona Legislature this week.

Monday, February 14th Senate Committee on Government at 2:00 PM SB1338 paper ballots; hand count; precincts (Rogers) prohibits the use of electronic voting and tabulating devices, unless required to comply with accessibility requirements. It requires paper ballots to be used in all elections and counted by hand. It prohibits a county board of supervisors from using voting centers. Why do they object so much to voting centers? OPPOSE SB1465 voting equipment; requirements; records; origin (Rogers) requires the Secretary of State to revoke the certification for vote recording, vote aggregation and vote tabulating machines that do not meet certain requirements. Requires at least one of the members of the Equipment Certification Advisory Committee to hold an industry-recognized cybersecurity certification. Again, more stop the steal paranoia. OPPOSE SB1571 ballot drop boxes; surveillance; appropriation (Townsend) prohibits voted early ballots from being returned by mail. Outlines requirements for ballot drop-boxes, including a monitoring camera. This is ridiculous. OPPOSE      SB1572 voting list; images; cast votes (Townsend) requires a county recorder to publish a list of eligible voters, with certain identifying information redacted, on the county recorder's website 10 days before a primary and general election. Requires a county recorder to digitally publish on the county's website all ballot images and a sortable cast-vote record. Requires early ballots, provisional ballots and election day ballots to be separated, tabulated and stored by precinct as applicable. OPPOSE SB1609 election contests; invalidated election; sanctions (Townsend) says a court will order a new election if it determines the initial outcome was determined not to be the outcome. I am not sure what she is getting at with this one. Hoping that Trump appointed judges will help in the next round? SB1629 registration; verification; images; audits; boxes (Borrelli: Barto, Fann, et al) outlines requirements for "election integrity audits" by the Office of the Auditor General, the posting of digital ballot images, registration of voter registration collectors with the Secretary of State, voter list maintenance procedures, signature verification training and testing, ballot drop boxes and hand count audits. OPPOSE SB1638 early ballots; visually impaired voters (Pace: Shah) requires any Arizona election to provide for voting by the use of a remote accessible vote by mail system for persons with a visual impairment. SUPPORT SCR1012 legislature; ninety house districts (Mesnard) will have a strike-everything amendment on voter identification that refers to the ballot a measure to require an early voter to provide the voter's date of birth and a copy of certain early voter identification when returning an early ballot. Removes the authorization for a person to provide two different forms of identification without a photograph in order to receive a ballot at a polling place. OPPOSE SCR1032 plenary legislative authority; elections (Townsend: Borrelli, Gowan, et al.) says the Legislature reaffirms the Legislature's plenary power with respect to elections and opposes any attempt by the federal government to usurp or otherwise interfere with state legislative sovereign authority over elections. This is objecting to much needed measures such as the Freedom to Vote Act. OPPOSE Tuesday, February 15th Senate Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM SB1411 early ballots; tracking system (Mesnard) requires counties with a population of more than 100,000 persons to provide an early ballot tracking system and provide voters with access to the system on the county's website. Appropriates $700,000 to the Secretary of State for establishing a grant program for counties to establish an early ballot tracking system. This seems fine and is similar to what we have in Maricopa County. Wednesday, February 16th House Committee on Government & Elections at 9:00 AM   HB2041 ballot fraud countermeasures; paper; ink (Biasiucci: Blackman, Chaplik, et al) requires certain types of paper, ink, watermarks, etc. for ballots, furthering the big lie related to voter fraud. OPPOSE HB2240 elections; voting centers prohibited (Hoffman: Barton, Burges, et al) prohibits voting centers. This is another measure to discourage early voting. OPPOSE HB2242 voter registrations; validation requirement (Hoffman: Barton, Biasiucci, et al) requires elections officials to independently verify the accuracy of the name, address, date of birth, and driver's license number on every voter registration form. This will create significant delays in new voter registrations. OPPOSE HB2491 elections; signature matching requirements (Hoffman: Martinez, Parker) requires a multi-factor (there is a blank in the bill) signature verification for early ballots and makes it a Class 5 felony if a person does follow that. OPPOSE HB2492 voter registration; verification; citizenship (Hoffman: Blackman, Carter, et al) requires proof of residency to register to vote -- an ID with a current address, creates new restrictions for federal-only voters, even though the state has no authority to do so, and provides new ways to punish non-citizens who may register to vote. OPPOSE HB2703 auditor general; audits; county elections (Bolick: Biasiucci, Blackman, et al.) provides for "election integrity" audits. Again, more of the same. OPPOSE HCR2025 government-issued voter identification (Fillmore: Biasiucci, Blackman, et al) refers to the ballot a measure relating to voter ID. OPPOSE Sign on to your Request to Speak account, click the blue Request to Speak button, click on New Request in the nav bar (left column), then simply cut and paste the bill number into Search Phrase (for example: HCR2014). Push blue Add Request button, weigh in FOR or AGAINST, click No on Do you wish to speak? (in person), leave a short Comment, and click on SUBMIT. For another submission, click on the New Request link in the nav bar on the left and follow the directions above. If you had an account with RTS previously, it is still active. If you do not have an account, go ahead and set one up, but someone will have to help you activate it as it requires going to the Capitol. Reach out to Civic Engagement Beyond Voting. Wanna speed up your Request to Speak experience?  If you don't have a comment to leave, you can go to My Bill Positions page, cut and paste the bill number into that box, click on thumbs up or thumbs down, and push the blue ADD button. You won't have to wait between each step.

Urge your legislators to oppose bills attacking Arizona Corporation Commission and early voting

This past week saw a plethora of bad public policies advance in various committees -- attacks on voting rights, ballot measures, human rights, the Arizona Corporation Commission and clean energy, water, and more. 

The attacks on the Arizona Corporation Commission and its clean energy rules continued with HB2737 corporation commission actions; investigations advancing in committee and  HB2248 corporation commission; electric generation resources (Griffin) now ready to go to the floor. SB1175 corporation commission; electric generation resources is stalled in the Senate Rules committee.

Please keep up the pressure and contact your own legislators, even if you have previously done so, and ask them to oppose all three bills. If you have already emailed a couple of times, please try a phone call.  Use this link to send a message to your senator and two representatives. You can find the legislators' numbers here.

Please use this link or the button below to contact your Senator and ask them to oppose SB1069 permanent early voting list; eligibility (Ugenti-Rita). It removes voters from the Permanent Early Voting List if they do not vote an early ballot in two consecutive primary and general elections. This is a purge of the list and another way to suppress votes.