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Legislative Updates 2009Sierra Club 2009 Legislative Update #8 “And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.” March 6, 2009 Hi all! Thanks again to everyone who attended Environmental Day and met with legislators and attended committee hearings. This week the Governor unveiled her “plan” for addressing the fiscal problems of the state. There was really nothing new or creative in it, except you had a Republican governor proposing a tax increase. She wants the legislature to refer something to the ballot so they can go after voter-approved, voter-protected funds, most of which go to education and healthcare, and she wants to increase the sales tax, a volatile tax that is already high in Arizona, especially in cities such as Phoenix. Governor Brewer mentioned specifically stealing the voter-approved Land Conservation Fund dollars saying we have no urban sprawl problem. Huh? We still look pretty sprawling to me. Besides, those dollars are specifically for conserving state trust lands. Protecting state trust lands may or may not limit sprawl, but there are some critical lands that should be conserved and these dollars are designated for that. Speaking of that, please call again this week and ask legislators to reject HB2088 and any other attempts to violate the voter protection provisions in the Arizona Constitution. HB2088 NOW: public conservation monies; transfer; parks (Nichols) diverts $20 million from the Public Conservation Account in the Land Conservation Fund established by the voters in 1998 when they approved the Growing Smarter Act referred to the ballot by the Arizona Legislature. The dollars are diverted to a variety of purposes – everything from water banking to parks to workshops. This amendment is clearly unconstitutional as it in no way furthers the purposes of the “Growing Smarter” measure that went before the voters in 1998. By diverting dollars from this fund, the Legislature hurts both conservation efforts and education – dollars from the Land Conservation Fund go into the Trust to benefit the Trust beneficiaries. The primary beneficiary is public education. Providing adequate funding for parks and other programs is important, but this is not the appropriate way to do so. The best avenue is to restore those funds directly and to establish a more stable funding source for our state parks. The voters approved the Voter Protection Act, because they were fed up with the Legislature undercutting, repealing, and diverting dollars from voter-approved measures. This bill demonstrates why it is needed more than ever. Ask them to also oppose HB2240 rule making; state agencies; moratorium (Tobin), which puts a moratorium on any rule making until June 30, 2010, if the rule would have any additional costs associated with it for other agencies or for anyone else. There are many rules that might have an additional cost up front, but save us money later, plus many that have a minimal cost associated with them but have enormous benefits. Prevention is cheaper than trying to clean up or fix things after the fact – consider groundwater contamination, for example. While there is an exemption in the bill for rules that are aimed at preventing an imminent threat to public health and safety, it does not address general threats to public health and safety. Considering the poor air quality in several of urban areas, should we really wait to clean it up? Considering the importance of water in our arid state, shouldn’t we do everything, and as soon as possible, to ensure that it is protected? Please oppose this ill-conceived legislation. HB2401 administrative rules oversight committee (Williams, Barnes, Burns, et al) is also a bad idea. It reestablishes the Administrative Rules Oversight Committee (AROC), a committee that has oversight on rules and consists of 10 legislators and a representative from the governor’s office. This committee was an ineffective mechanism for addressing concerns about rules when it existed previously and merely adds more bureaucracy to an already cumbersome process. There were good reasons that Governor Hull vetoed a bill to keep the AROC around – no one has really missed it since. Governor Napolitano vetoed an identical bill last session. The entity is duplicative as there are many mechanisms for resolving issues with the rules currently. Rules are reviewed by assistant attorneys general for compliance with the laws and must go through the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council. To email your House Members or find their direct phone numbers, click on Arizona House or paste http://www.azleg.gov/memberRoster.asp?Body=H into your browser. If you are not sure who your legislators are, please go to http://www.vote-smart.org or call the House information desk. 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) 926-4221 (House) and ask them to connect you with your legislators. I just wanted to reiterate that I think it is important to call legislators whenever you can, but an email is fine if that is all you have time to do. Be sure to always include your name and address, plus a phone number if you are comfortable giving that. This will allow them to confirm that you are really a constituent and a real person. Another way you can weigh in is via the Request to Speak system. You can only register your support, opposition, or neutrality on a bill when that bill is scheduled for a committee hearing and prior to it actually being heard. You also must first set up an account down at the legislature (contact me and I can do that for you). So this week, say you wanted to support HB2157 and you have an account set up, you would need to click on the Request to Speak tab on the legislature’s website (www.azleg.gov), enter your user name and password, click on House of Representatives as that is where the bill is currently, and then either enter the bill number or do an agenda search. When HB2157 comes up, you will see a screen that asks you if you oppose, support, or are neutral. Click on your choice. It also asks you if you wish to speak. Unless you are planning to be there, just click on no (no is also the default, so if you forget, it will do so automatically). If any of this is unclear, feel free to call me or look at the Request to Speak Manual that is on line on the Legislature’s website. There is not too much happening in committee this week as the Senate is still pretty much stalled over the budget and the House is likely to be moving bills to the floor as they are finished with hearing most house bills in house committees. Monday, March 9, 2009 Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Infrastructure and Public Debt at 1:30 p.m. Senate Hearing Room 109 Tuesday, March 10, 2009 Senate Committee on Commerce and Economic Development at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 1 Renewable Energy
Joint Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 p.m. in House Hearing Room 1 House Committee on Appropriations at 3:00 p.m. in House Hearing Room 1 Wednesday, March 11, 2009 House Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 p.m. in House Hearing Room 1 HB2157 wildlife; aquatic invasive species (McLain, Goodale, Jones, et al) allows the Game and Fish Department to establish a program for limiting the introduction of nonnative invasive aquatic species such as the Quagga Mussel. This is a good idea. SUPPORT. HB2369 revenue department; technical correction (Murphy) will have a strike everything amendment on noncustodial federal funds; legislative appropriation. It is not posted, but I expect it will not be good. 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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