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Legislative Updates 2009Sierra Club 2009 Legislative Update #6 “Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man.” February 20, 2009 Good morning (afternoon and evening)! Don’t forget to R.S.V.P. for Environmental Day on Monday, March 2. The good news this week is that it looks as if the Legislature does not have the three-fourths vote needed to divert the voter-protected land conservation dollars. The bad news is they really did hurt state parks with the fiscal year 2009 budget “adjustments.” Today, the State Parks Board will be considering the closure of 11 parks. Please tell legislators and the Parks Board that we need a long-term fix for funding parks. One idea that has been floated is a fee on license plates and allowing all Arizona residents to visit parks free. Visitors from out of state would pay the regular fees still. Many legislators have responded positively to it. It’s back! HB2235 game and fish commissioner; appointment (JP Weiers, Gowan, Montenegro, et al.) is on the House Natural Resources and Rural Affairs Committee agenda for Monday. It requires appointees to the Game and Fish Commission to have a hunting license or a combined hunting and fishing license for five years prior to being appointed to the Commission. It also requires that they be registered with the same political party for five years and a resident of Arizona for 10 years. It makes all the application information for the commission public information, which is probably the only part of the bill that is okay. They have talked about amendments – requiring four out of five commissioners to have hunting, fishing, or combined licenses – but there is little they could do to “fix” it. This bill is retribution for the appointment and confirmation of Jennifer Martin to the Commission. She is a wildlife biologist who does not hunt (although she is not anti-hunting). Of course, some who opposed her nomination also thought she was not qualified because she was a young mother. This bill is ridiculous and should be defeated. The Arizona Wildlife Federation, the Arizona Game and Fish Commission, the Yuma Valley Rod and Gun Club, and past commissioners (those who hunt and those who don’t both), plus many others are opposed to this bill. Please call or email members of the Natural Resources and Rural Affairs Committee right away and let them know you oppose this bill. If you called previously, do not hesitate to call again. Members of the Committee include representatives: Konopnicki (Chair) (602) 926-5409, bkonopnicki@azleg.gov; Jones (Vice-Chair) (602) 926-3002, rjones@azleg.gov; Deschene (602) 926-5862, cdeschene@azleg.gov; Fleming (602) 926-5836, pfleming@azleg.gov ; Pancrazi (602) 926-3004, lpancrazi@azleg.gov ; Pratt (602) 926-5761, fpratt@azleg.gov ; Stevens (602) 926-4321, dstevens@azleg.gov; and Jerry Weiers (602) 926-5894, jpweiers@azleg.gov Here is what is happening this week: Monday, February 23, 2009 House Committee on Natural Resources and Rural Affairs at 2:00 p.m. in House Hearing Room 4 HB2064 wildlife; guides; wasted meat (Konopnicki) allows the Game and Fish Commission to suspend a license for up to five years for wasting of game meat. It adds in a definition of wildlife guide. This is fine. HB2235 game and fish commissioner; appointment (JP Weiers, Gowan, Montenegro, et al.) See above. HB2278 technical correction; state trust lands (Jones) has a strike everything on tires; abandoned mines that allows waste tires to be used to fill abandoned mines. This is a recycled bad idea from last year. Tires are flammable and create a fire hazard, at a minimum. We don’t even allow them in landfills. OPPOSE. Tuesday, February 24, 2009 House Committee on the Environment at 2:00 p.m. in House Hearing Room 5 HB2190 nuisance abatement; entry on premises (Barnes) permits county or city health and environmental departments warrantless access to properties 24 hours after the posting of a nuisance abatement notice for the purpose of cleaning up or disposing of any nuisance or danger to the public health. The only concern I have with this is whether it actually might delay action. We need to find out more about this bill and about how the new process would work. HB2330 biodiesel fuel dispensers; labeling (Boone, Mason) requires labeling consistent with federal code. This seems like a common sense thing to do. SUPPORT. HB2416 plastic bag recycling program (Young Wright) establishes a plastic bag recycling program and requires stores to allow customers to return any plastic bags from the store back to the store for recycling. It includes a number of specific requirements. SUPPORT. House Government Committee at 2:00 p.m. in House Hearing Room 4 HB2253 publication of notices; websites (Jones, Antenori, Pancrazi, et al) allows for the publication of notices required by law to be posted on official county, city or town websites instead of in a newspaper. This will save dollars and resources, but it will it cut off a segment of the population from accessing these notices. They are apparently working on amendments, but we have not seen them. OPPOSE. Thursday, February 26, 2009 House Committee on Water and Energy at 9:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 5 HB2329 solar energy; permit fees (Boone, Mason) establishes a maximum fee that can be charged for various solar facilities including solar hot water and solar photo voltaic. SUPPORT. HB2336 community facilities districts; renewable energy (Mason) is in flux. We are waiting to see where it goes, but we hope it will not include community facility districts as they help to promote urban sprawl. HB2337 energy standards; buildings; contracting (Mason, Ableser, Ch Campbell, et al) requires reporting on energy efficient construction in cities and counties, allows schools to use dollars saved on energy to invest those dollars in greater energy saving and renewable energy devices, and allows establishment of an energy savings account for schools, and requires that schools, universities and state buildings get 10 percent of their energy from clean renewable resources by 2015. SUPPORT. HB2341 renewable energy production tax credit (Mason) establishes a tax credit for renewable energy production. With the state’s budget problems, this is a bad time to establish a new tax credit. The definition of renewable does include some things we have concerns about including animal waste and municipal solid waste. HB2373 taxation; biogas facilities (Murphy) provide a sales tax exemption for pipes and valves included in the construction of pipelines used to transport biogas. It also provides a property valuation reduction for biogas facilities. Biogas facilities would be valued in the same manner as renewable energy equipment. HB2594 water import board; projects (Quelland) establishes a water board to look at importing 10 million acre feet of water, with one million acre feet reserved for environmental purposes. The main purpose of the board is for distribution of the water imported for the purpose of enhancing and enabling population growth and environmental restoration and maintenance. We already have enough problems associated with imported water and the infrastructure associated with it. This is not a sustainable answer. OPPOSE.END_STATUTE House Committee on Judiciary at 9:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 4 HB2190 nuisance abatement; entry on premises (Barnes) See above. HB2424 illegal dumping; penalties (McGuire, Barnes, M. Garcia, et al) increases the penalty for illegal dumping of trash to a class 1 misdemeanor and a $1,800 fine, among other things. SUPPORT. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure at 9:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 3 HB2167 transportation district working group (Biggs) establishes a Transportation District Working Group (TDWG) charged with studying and making recommendations related to the division of the state into six transportation districts. It is just a working group, at least for now. HB2392 technical correction; vehicles and loads (Biggs) will have a strike everything on Vehicles and loads. It is not yet posted. HB2396 ADOT; transportation facility pilot projects (Biggs) will have a strike everything on Transportation; Public Private Partnerships. The amendment is not posted, but I expect it is a toll road proposal. To email your legislators or find their direct phone numbers, click on Legislators or paste http://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp into your browser. If you are not sure who your legislators are, please go to http://www.vote-smart.org or call the House or Senate information desks. If you're outside the Phoenix area, you can call your legislators’ offices toll free at 1-800-352-8404. In the Phoenix area call (602) 926-3559 (Senate) or (602) 926-4221 (House) and ask them to connect you with your legislators. For more information on bills we are tracking, go to http://arizona.sierraclub.org/political_action/tracker/ . Thank you! Sandy Bahr |
2009 Legislative Updates Bill Tracker
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