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| Arizona Legislature's power grab |
The agendas are also filled with amendments called "strike-everything amendments." These amendments cause confusion for many in the public as they allow legislators to take a bill and strike its entire content and replace it with a brand-new bill but keep the same bill number. If you see S/E, that means a strike-everything amendment will be offered.
This week there are several bills that are direct attacks on environmental initiatives. They include bills that would prohibit cities from putting in walking and biking paths or more public transportation. It would outlaw all the effort the city invested in Move Tucson. Another bill prohibits utilities from installing charging stations for electric vehicles. This is crazy! Please, sign into the Request to Speak system to weigh in on them while they are still in committee.
Sign into your RTS account here:
https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon
Directions for navigating the RTS system here:
http://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2018/03/request-to-speak-time.html
Helpful hint: Copy the bill number (ex. HB2505) and paste it into the SEARCH PHRASE box.
NOTE: At least five bills from last week's RTS action have moved on to other committees. If you have already weighed in on them, your position is already in the system. No need to do that again. If you haven't, it's even more important that you weigh in now as they are closer to a vote on the floor. I have indicated those bills in red.
Also, there are also some bills that make it difficult to vote or allow the state legislature to grab power from municipalities and other government agencies. You can find them here: https://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2023/02/request-to-speak-to-save-our-democracy.html
Monday, February 13th
Senate Transportation and Technology at 9:00 AM
- SB1122
transportation tax; election; Maricopa county (Farnsworth:
Cook) directs Maricopa County to hold an election for the sales tax for
transportation and prescribes how much it will be and what it will be used
for, including that 80% will go to freeways. OPPOSE
- SB1245 VLT; cities and towns; counties (Farnsworth)
diverts vehicle license tax distributions from counties to the State
Treasurer to be apportioned to counties by population and requires
distributions to incorporated cities and towns to be used for any purpose
related to transportation. This is another erosion of local control and
priorities. OPPOSE
- 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. This in outrageous restriction on the ability
for municipalities to reduce vehicular congestion and plan for public transportation.
OPPOSE
- 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 transportation demand-management
policy or project. It would outlaw all the effort that has been put into Move
Tucson. OPPOSE
- SB1340 toll roads; conversion; prohibition (Mendez:
Burch, Anna Hernandez, et al.) prohibits the Arizona Department of
Transportation (ADOT) or a county board of supervisors from converting a
publicly funded or maintained street or highway into a toll road. SUPPORT
- SB1697 highways; bicycle paths; walkways; prohibition (Hoffman)
prohibits 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. OPPOSE
- SCR1018 prohibit tax; monitoring; vehicle (Hoffman)
refers to the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit any
fees based on vehicle miles traveled. What a dumb proposal! OPPOSE
House Committee on Land, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs at 2:00 PM
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.
- HB2142 produce incentive program; annual appropriation (Dunn:
Carbone, Gress, et al.) appropriates $5 million to the Arizona Department
of Economic Security to implement the Produce Incentive Program which
helps those receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to
purchase produce at farmer's markets and similar venues. SUPPORT
- HB2376 agricultural
land; foreign ownership; prohibition (Biasiucci: Bliss,
Cook, et al.) prohibits selling, leasing or subleasing agricultural state
land to a foreign entity. This is not the answer to the water issues on
state trust lands. We need to prohibit over pumping by any entity leasing
state land, not just foreign. Neutral
with comment
- HB2441 state tree; residential planning (Griffin)
says cities and counties cannot limit by ordinance the planting of our
state tree, the blue palo verde. Is any community actually doing this?
Perhaps it should be directed at HOAs? SUPPORT
- HB2644 appropriation; wolf depredation investigator (Cook:
Smith) appropriates an unspecified amount to have a "peace
officer" investigate the killing of livestock by wolves. Why would
you have someone who knows nothing about wolves or livestock investigate
this? OPPOSE
- HB2806 state parks heritage fund; appropriation (Carbone:
Biasiucci, Blattman, et al.) makes a one time appropriation of $10 million
to the State Parks Heritage Fund. While we support this, we would rather
see SB1224 adopted as it includes ongoing funding for the Heritage Fund
from the lottery. SUPPORT
Tuesday, February 14th
House Committee on Natural
Resources, Energy, and Water at 2:00 PM
- HB2440 electric energy; power companies; priorities (Griffin)
requires electric utilities to prioritize grid reliability and
affordability in planning. There is no reason to limit this to just these
two factors. What about climate considerations? OPPOSE
- HB2618 decommissioning; solar and wind; standards (Griffin)
proscribes requirements for solar and wind facilities, including
decommissioning. The bill revises ARS Title 30, but Title 30 has no
provisions regulating the building or decommissioning of coal or gas
facilities. Why are renewable resources being singled out? OPPOSE
- HB2669 solid waste; sludge; water quality (Dunn) will have a
strike-everything amendment on prohibition; biosolids; land application includes
limits on the application of biosolids. SUPPORT
- HB2702 energy projects; grazing operations;
compensation (Nguyen: Biasiucci, Bliss, et al.) says those
with solar leases that affect grazing have to pay the livestock interests
for various items (even on state lands). OPPOSE
- HCM2008 air quality; ozone standards; opposing (Carbone)
asks Congress and the Biden administration to stop the Environmental
Protection Agency from imposing any sanctions on Arizona for not meeting
clean air requirements. OPPOSE
Senate Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM
- SB1714
appropriation; Arizona trail fund (Gowan: Shamp, Shope)
appropriates $250,000 for the Arizona Trail. SUPPORT
Wednesday, February 15th
Senate Committee on Commerce at 8:30 AM
- SB1308 fireworks; aerial devices; retailers; licensure (Gowan)
legalizes aerial fireworks. Just what we need, more fires and more
distressed animals and people. Gowan is in the fireworks business, by the
way. OPPOSE
- SB1501 electric vehicle charging stations (Carroll: Gowan, Kaiser, et al.) prohibits utilities from installing charging stations for electric vehicles. We need utilities to be part of the solution to transportation electrification. OPPOSE
Senate Committee on Government at 9:30 AM
- SB1500 government investments; fiduciaries; pecuniary
benefit (Carroll: Bennett, Gowan, et al.) requires a
fiduciary to take into account only pecuniary factors when evaluating an
investment, so they cannot consider environmental or social factors.
Prescribes requirements and prohibitions relating to the State Treasurer's
investments. OPPOSE
- SB1611 public entities; contracts; prohibition (Kern)
prohibits government entities from entering into contracts with an entity
that might consider social and environmental factors. OPPOSE
- SB1651 water; energy; financing program (Borrelli)
establishes a commercial property assessed clean energy program, which
provides a financing mechanism for water, energy efficiency and other energy
saving and renewable energy investments. SUPPORT
House Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM
- HB2142 produce incentive program; annual appropriation (Dunn:
Carbone, Gress, et al.) See above.
- HB2374 state lake improvement fund; appropriation (Griffin)
See above.
- HB2518 appropriation; Glassford Dells regional park (Bliss)
appropriates $3.5 million for this park provided that Yavapai County,
Prescott, and Prescott Valley come up with a match. SUPPORT
House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure at 2:00 PM
- HB2411 water supply;
elimination; reduction; damages (Cook: Martinez, Toma, et
al.) seeks to force Scottsdale to serve water to Rio Verde, thus rewarding
irresponsible development. It requires a city that provided water to
customers outside the city's service area and reduced or terminated that
service to make the same reduction or termination of water supply to the
mayor and members of the city council and says the city is liable for
damages incurred because of the termination of service. OPPOSE
Thursday, February 16th
Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and
Water at 9:30 AM
- SB1390 water infrastructure finance authority;
amendments (Kerr) is a "clean-up" bill for last
year's massive bill on the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority that set
up an augmentation program and provided some funding for water
conservation. It includes several provisions we are concerned about,
including a conflict of interest and who is eligible for conservation
grants. OPPOSE
- SB1392
appropriation; state park; Verde River (Kerr) appropriates
an undesignated amount for a state park at the headwaters of the Verde
River. It is good to see legislators supporting parks again. SUPPORT
- SB1502 corporation commission; electric generation resources (Carroll: Kerr, Griffin) seeks to pre-empt the renewable energy standard at the Arizona Corporation Commission with one that is weaker and requires the lowest cost resource. It includes nuclear power on the list of clean resources. OPPOSE
