Request to Speak Actions on Bad Bills on Water & Good Bills for State Parks

This week at the Arizona State Legislature there are some good bills and some bad bills being heard in committee. Please, sign into the Request to Speak system to weigh in on them while they are still in committee. The good bills include those that support recreation and state parks. Most of the bad bills have to do with water management or unfettered development without an adequate water supply. 

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: Three 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. 

HB2411 hadn't been posted yet when I weighed in on the RTS system last week, so I took this opportunity to OPPOSE it.   

Also, there are also some bills that make it difficult to vote. You can find them here: 

NOTE: Three bills from last week’s Request to Speak action have moved on to another committee. If you have already weighed in on them your response is still in the system, so there is no need to do that again.  If you haven’t, it is even more important that you weigh in now since those bills have moved even closer to a vote on the floor.  I will indicate the repeat bills in red.

There are also some bills that make it more difficult to vote. You can find them here:

https://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2023/02/request-to-speak-on-more-bills-that.html

 

Monday, February 6th House Committee on Land, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs at 2:00 PM HB2505 outdoor recreation coordinating commission; continuation (Diaz) continues this until 2029. This commission reviews and provides comments on statewide recreation issues for state parks. SUPPORT HB2506 Arizona state parks board; continuation (Diaz) continues state parks until 2029. SUPPORT HB2518 appropriation; Glassford Dells regional park (Bliss) appropriates $3.5 million to the State Parks Board for Prescott and Prescott Valley to establish the Glassford Dells regional park, provided the cities and county provide a match. SUPPORT HCM2002 federal lands; housing shortage (Griffin) sends a message to Congress seeking to open up more public land to development. OPPOSE HCM2004 urging Congress; national forest health (Griffin) has a lot of misinformation about national forests and asks Congress to change the management. OPPOSE Tuesday, February 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. HB2535 private property; wells; regulation; prohibition (Smith: Carter, Chaplik, et al.) says private wells cannot be regulated by cities when property with private wells is incorporated into a city. OPPOSE  HB2561 city water provider; requirements; service (Kolodin: Chaplik, Griffin, et al.) tries to require that Scottsdale continue to provide water to Rio Verde. OPPOSE Senate Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM   SB1224 state parks; lottery; heritage fund (Shope) restores the $10 million from lottery dollars for the State Parks Heritage Fund for trails, protecting cultural sites, education, etc. SUPPORT Wednesday, February 8th   House Committee on Government at 9:00 AM . HB2547 zoning ordinances; property rights; costs (Toma) requires cities to adopt individual property rights cost of housing impact statement regarding the impact of any zoning ordinance. OPPOSE Senate Committee on Government at 9:30 AM SB1093 city water provider services (Kavanagh) requires the cities to provide water via standpipes if they have been providing it previously to areas outside the city if certain conditions are met. This is again trying to force Scottsdale to provide water to Rio Verde. OPPOSE House Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here: HB2026 appropriation; on-farm efficiency fund (Dunn) appropriates $30 million to the On-Farm Irrigation Efficiency Fund. Increasing irrigation efficiency is a worthy goal. Unfortunately, no change in the type of crop is allowed, no switch to something less water intensive.  Neutral with comment House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure at 2:00 PM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. HB2411 water supply; elimination; reduction; damages (Cook: Martinez, Toma, et al.) tries to make Scottsdale liable for termination of water service to Rio Verde. What they really should be doing is tightening regulation, not proposing this kind of bill to reward wildcat development. OPPOSE Thursday, February 9th Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water at 9:30 AM 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. This would put even more resources into augmentation versus conservation. Why not have this person focus on that? 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 SB1714 appropriation; Arizona trail fund (Gowan: Shamp, Shope) appropriates $250,000 for the Arizona Trail Fund. SUPPORT

Request to Speak on More Bills that Make It Hard to Vote - 2/4/2023

At the Arizona state legislature this week there are several bills (again!) that make it more difficult to vote. Please, sign onto the Request to Speak system and weigh in while they are still in committee.

If you have a RTS account sign in here:  https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

 

 

NOTE: Three bills from last week’s Request to Speak action have moved on to another committee. If you have already weighed in on them your response is still in the system, so there is no need to do that again.  If you haven’t, it is even more important that you weigh in now since those bills have moved even closer to a vote on the floor.  I will indicate the repeat bills in red.

There were also several bad water bills and good recreation bills being heard this week. You can find them here.

At the Arizona state legislature this week there are several bills (again!) that make it more difficult to vote. Please, sign onto the Request to Speak system and weigh in while they are still in committee.

If you have a RTS account sign in here:  https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

 

 

NOTE: Three bills from last week’s Request to Speak action have moved on to another committee. If you have already weighed in on them your response is still in the system, so there is no need to do that again.  If you haven’t, it is even more important that you weigh in now since those bills have moved even closer to a vote on the floor.  I will indicate the repeat bills in red.

Directions for navigating the Request to Speak system here:  

At the Arizona state legislature this week there are several bills (again!) that make it more difficult to vote. Please, sign onto the Request to Speak system and weigh in while they are still in committee.

If you have a RTS account sign in here:  https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

 

 

NOTE: Three bills from last week’s Request to Speak action have moved on to another committee. If you have already weighed in on them your response is still in the system, so there is no need to do that again.  If you haven’t, it is even more important that you weigh in now since those bills have moved even closer to a vote on the floor.  I will indicate the repeat bills in red.

There were also several bad water bills and good recreation bills being heard this week. You can find them here.

At the Arizona state legislature this week there are several bills (again!) that make it more difficult to vote. Please, sign onto the Request to Speak system and weigh in while they are still in committee.

If you have a RTS account sign in here:  https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

 

At the Arizona state legislature this week there are several bills (again!) that make it more difficult to vote. Please, sign onto the Request to Speak system and weigh in while they are still in committee.

If you have a RTS account sign in here:  https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

 

 

NOTE: Three bills from last week’s Request to Speak action have moved on to another committee. If you have already weighed in on them your response is still in the system, so there is no need to do that again.  If you haven’t, it is even more important that you weigh in now since those bills have moved even closer to a vote on the floor.  I will indicate the repeat bills in red.

There were also several bad water bills and good recreation bills being heard this week. You can find them here.

At the Arizona state legislature this week there are several bills (again!) that make it more difficult to vote. Please, sign onto the Request to Speak system and weigh in while they are still in committee.

If you have a RTS account sign in here:  https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

 

 

NOTE: Three bills from last week’s Request to Speak action have moved on to another committee. If you have already weighed in on them your response is still in the system, so there is no need to do that again.  If you haven’t, it is even more important that you weigh in now since those bills have moved even closer to a vote on the floor.  I will indicate the repeat bills in red.

There were also several bad water bills and good recreation bills being heard this week. You can find them here.

At the Arizona state legislature this week there are several bills (again!) that make it more difficult to vote. Please, sign onto the Request to Speak system and weigh in while they are still in committee.

If you have a RTS account sign in here:  https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

 

 

NOTE: Three bills from last week’s Request to Speak action have moved on to another committee. If you have already weighed in on them your response is still in the system, so there is no need to do that again.  If you haven’t, it is even more important that you weigh in now since those bills have moved even closer to a vote on the floor.  I will indicate the repeat bills in red.

There were also several bad water bills and good recreation bills being heard this week. You can find them here.

If you have a RTS account sign in here:  https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

 

Directions for navigating the Request to Speak system here:

If you have a RTS account sign in here:  https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

 

Directions for navigating the Request to Speak system here:

At the Arizona state legislature this week there are several bills (again!) that make it more difficult to vote. Please, sign onto the Request to Speak system and weigh in while they are still in committee

If you have a RTS account sign in here: https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon 

Directions for navigating the Request to Speak 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: Three bills from last week’s Request to Speak action have moved on to another committee. If you have already weighed in on them your response is still in the system, so there is no need to do that again.  If you haven’t, it is even more important that you weigh in now since those bills have moved even closer to a vote on the floor.  I will indicate the repeat bills in red.

There were also several bad water bills and good recreation bills being heard this week. You can find them here.

 

NOTE: Three bills from last week’s Request to Speak action have moved on to another committee. If you have already weighed in on them your response is still in the system, so there is no need to do that again. If you haven’t, it is even more important that you weigh in now since those bills have moved even closer to a vote on the floor. I will indicate the repeat bills in red. (Two of those bills were posted after I weighed in on RTS last week, so I weighed in this week.) There were also several bad water bills and good recreation bills being heard this week. You can find them here: Monday, February 6th Senate Committee on Elections at 2:00 PM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. SB1140 elections; voting centers prohibited (Hoffman: Borrelli, Farnsworth, et al.) prohibits counties from using voting centers -- they can only use polling places in the districts. OPPOSE 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. OPPOSE SB1143 voting registrations; ballot requests; source (Hoffman: Borrelli, Farnsworth, et al.) prohibits anything other than the official early ballot request forms, limiting grassroots efforts to get people signed up for early voting. OPPOSE SB1144 electronic ballot adjudication; prohibition (Hoffman: Borrelli, Farnsworth, et al.) prohibits electronic adjudication of ballots and requires creation of a duplicate ballot if the ballot has been damaged. This seems unnecessarily burdensome. OPPOSE SB1170 ballot drop boxes; prohibition (Hoffman: Borrelli, Farnsworth, et al.) prohibits the use of unmonitored drop boxes for voting, thus making early voting more inconvenient for those who prefer not to use the mail. OPPOSE  SB1213 legislative council; procedures manual (Kern: Kolodin) substitutes legislative council for the secretary of state relative to the elections procedures manual. OPPOSE SB1265 voting; elections; tally; prohibition (Kern: Mesnard, Rogers, et al.) prohibits ranked choice voting. OPPOSE Senate Transportation and Technology at 2:00 PM 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 SB1312 vehicle mileage; tracking; tax; prohibitions (Hoffman) prohibits the state or any political subdivisions from developing land use or transportation plans that include vehicle miles traveled reductions, prohibits VMT tracking, and prohibits any per mile fees. This last item is being looked at as an alternative to the gas tax. This bill also runs counter to state implementation plans for reducing pollution. OPPOSE Wednesday, February 8th House Committee on Government at 9:00 AM . HCM2007 state immigration enforcement; urging Congress (Griffin: Carroll) asks Congress to pass a bill to allow states to bypass federal border and immigration policies. OPPOSE House Committee on Municipal Oversight & Elections at 2:00 PM 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. 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 HCR2033 primary elections; eligible candidates (Smith: Chaplik, Heap, et al.) refers to the ballot a constitutional amendment that says each political party can nominate just the number of offices available and any others would go on the next general election. It would preclude ranked choice voting. OPPOSE

Solutions for Pollution - Sign up to Speak or Provide Written Comments on Soot Rule!

 

The current standards for deadly and dangerous soot pollution (also known as particulate matter pollution or PM 2.5) set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are outdated and insufficient to protect our health and environment. EPA just came out with its new proposed standards and they are not nearly strong enough to adequately protect public health. 

Stronger soot pollution standards will save lives. EPA must set the strongest science-based soot standards to protect our health, advance environmental justice, and ensure clean air for all. By tightening public health protections from soot, EPA could save nearly 20,000 lives a year.

EPA will be holding virtual comment sessions on Tuesday, February 21 and Wednesday, February 22, 2023 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. MST


Please sign up to speak at one of the public comment sessions here.

You can learn more about the health impacts of soot and the proposed soot rule by viewing this video.

Please submit a written comment here.

-Sierra Club, Grand Canyon chapter 

Request to Speak on Bills that Hurt the Environment and Water

Among the bad bills in committee at our state legislature this week are some misguided bills that either distract from or exacerbate the problem with over-pumping water. Other bad bills prohibit banks from considering environmental or social issues when making investments.

Please, use the Request to Speak ap to OPPOSE the bad bills (below) and SUPPORT the good bills like HB2373 (that facilitates a faster transition to clean energy.)

Sign in to RTS system here: https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

If you have not registered for the Request to Speak system to voice your position, we encourage you to do so now as it will take a day or two for your account to be 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.

 

Written directions for RTS here:

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

There are also several bills designed to make it more difficult to vote. If you are interested in opposing those bills, a list can be found here:

https://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2023/01/legislative-update-and-request-to-speak.html

Weigh into the following bills before they go to a vote in committee. The dates and times are listed below. 

 Monday, January 30th

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

• HB2376 agricultural land; foreign ownership; prohibition (Biasiucci: Bliss, Cook, et al.) prohibits selling, leasing or subleasing agricultural state land to any foreign entity. This seems to miss the point of the problem regarding over pumping water on state trust lands. It’s not just the Saudi’s that are over pumping. Big ag and development are using up water too. SUPPORT with a comment regarding domestic over-pumping

Senate Transportation and Technology at 2:00 PM

• SB1100 all-terrain vehicles; definition (Carroll, Gowan, Shamp, et al) increases, from 2,500 to 3,500 pounds or less, the maximum weight of an all-terrain vehicle. The bigger vehicles do even more harm to trails and the land. OPPOSE
• 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. Shouldn’t public transit options be included to get people off of freeways?  OPPOSE

Tuesday, January 31st

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

• HB2444 natural resource conservation districts; revisions (Griffin) establishes a Natural Resource Conservation District Commission and sets up a whole system for them to get more money. Most of these entities represent industrial agriculture. OPPOSE.

House Committee on Commerce at 2:00 PM

• HB2472 social credit; use; prohibition (Montenegro) says a state cannot require the use of a social credit score for bank lending. Again, this would limit requiring banks to look at the environmental harm or public health impacts of the dollars they loan. OPPOSE

Wednesday, February 1st

Senate Committee on Government at 8:30 AM

•  SB1103 administrative review; approvals; developments (Petersen: Borrelli, Kavanagh, et al.) provides for no hearing on certain aspects of development, including plats, development plans, etc. and also for expedited review. Encourages rushed development when we really should be cutting back on development because there isn’t enough water. OPPOSE
• SB1115 land sales; foreign entities; prohibition (Kern: Rogers) prohibits sale or lease of state land to foreign entities. They focus on foreign rather than the over pumping of water from domestic users as well. SUPPORT with comment
• SB1138 banks; discrimination prohibition; social criteria  (Hoffman: Borrelli, Kern, et al.) says banks can't discriminate based on social credit, environmental, social, governance, or other impact criteria. That would mean a bank could not say no to a developer based on the harm of that development. OPPOSE
• SB1139 government investments; products; fiduciaries; plans (Hoffman: Borrelli, Kern) requires the state treasurer to post investments and prohibits any investments to consider social implications. OPPOSE
• SCR1015 initiative; referendum; signatures; legislative districts (Mesnard: Bennett, Kaiser, et al.) refers to the ballot that would require a proportionate percentage of petition signatures from each legislative district to put a measure on the ballot. This would be extremely difficult and expensive and put ballot measures more in the hands of the wealthy. OPPOSE

House Committee on Regulatory Affairs at 2:00 PM

• HB2373 permits; automated permitting platform (Biasiucci: Contreras, L. Hernandez, et al.) allows for online solar permit compliance and removes requirement for a diagram when using it. Facilitates a faster transition to clean energy.  SUPPORT

House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure at 2:00 PM

• HB2411 water supply; elimination; reduction; damages (Cook: Martinez, Toma, et al.) tries to make Scottsdale liable for termination of water service to Rio Verde. What they really should be doing is tightening regulation, not proposing this kind of bill to reward wildcat development. OPPOSE

Thursday, February 2nd

Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water at 9:30 AM

• SB1224 state parks; lottery; heritage fund (Shope) restores the $10 million from lottery dollars for the State Parks Heritage Fund for trails, protecting cultural sites, education, etc. SUPPORT
• 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 (external water sources, like desalination in the Gulf of California). This would put even more resources into augmentation versus conservation. Why not have this person focus on that? OPPOSE

Legislative Update and Request to Speak actions on bills that make it harder to vote

This week, legislators exempted themselves from the public records law and will now destroy emails to and from them and their staff after 90 days and texts immediately, passed a bill to try to allow for the destruction of desert washes on private property, and also advanced a bill to refer to the ballot a measure to make it more difficult to pass citizen initiatives that are constitutional amendments. The legislative majority also passed rules to limit debate on bills and vote explanation to shut down the minority party. It seems like some of these legislators forget that they are supposed to represent and work for the people.

Several bad bills were proposed that make it more difficult to vote or to enact a Citizens Initiative. Please, use the Request to Speak app on the state legislature website to register your opposition while they are still in committee. 

Sign in here: https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

If you have not registered for the Request to Speak system, we encourage you to do so now as it will take a day or two for the account be 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.

Or check out these written instructions: 

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

Monday, January 30th

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

Presentation • Election Mechanics Part 2 by Shelby Busch, We the People AZ Alliance (more election conspiracies)

• SB1066 election mailings; third-party disclosures (Kavanagh) requires any nongovernmental entity that mails an official election-related document or looks like one to include the disclosure "not from a government agency" on the outside of the envelope. This is indirect way to try to discredit legitimate mailings from the League of Women Voters and others who do voter registration. OPPOSE
• SB1135 spoiled early ballots; election day (Kavanagh) requires an early ballot not delivered or mailed to the county recorder to be exchanged by the voter at a polling place by 7:00 p.m. on election day in order to be counted and valid and removes a voter who exchanges an early ballot for a regular ballot from the Active Early Voter List. It repeals a county board of supervisors' authority to establish the use of emergency voting centers. This would result in more people getting purged from the early voting list and having fewer voting opportunities. OPPOSE
• SB1141 early ballot drop off; identification (Hoffman: Borrelli, Farnsworth, et al.) requires additional voter ID to drop off an early ballot. This is unnecessary as they already have the signature verification. OPPOSE
• SB1170 ballot drop boxes; prohibition (Hoffman: Borrelli, Farnsworth, et al.) prohibits unmonitored drop boxes. OPPOSE

Wednesday, February 1st

Senate Committee on Government at 8:30 AM

• SCR1015 initiative; referendum; signatures; legislative districts (Mesnard: Bennett, Kaiser, et al.) refers to the ballot that would require a proportionate percentage of petition signatures from each legislative district to put a measure on the ballot. This would be extremely difficult and expensive and put ballot measures more in the hands of the wealthy. OPPOSE

House Committee on Municipal Oversight & Elections at 2:00 PM
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• HB2233 election contests; procedures (Harris: Jones, McGarr) allows early ballots to be challenged due to any inconsistencies in personal information or signature. This is unnecessary and will result in more delays as people frequently have changes in their signature due to illness, age, etc. Elected officials follow up on those and should not have to now also deal with a flood of individual challenges from election deniers. OPPOSE
• HB2304 voting locations; precinct-based (McGarr: Biasiucci, Jones) allows only precinct-based polling locations, so no early ballot locations that allow any county to vote. OPPOSE
• HB2307 elections; hand counting; machines; prohibition (McGarr: Biasiucci, Griffin, et al.) requires all ballots to be hand counted. This would take forever and be less accurate. 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 

To weigh in on bills that affect our environment and water, go here: 

http://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2023/01/request-to-speak-on-bills-that-hurt.html