"You really can change the world if you care enough." - Marion Wright Edelman
Dear Conservation Friends,
credit: Scott Jones
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The Arizona Legislature has been in session 117 days. This is the third week in-a-row for an extra long weekend for legislators -- they will not be back at the Capitol until Tuesday. There is no budget, no agreement on Medicaid expansion, and no end in sight. The good news is there is still time for you to take action on a few bad bills. The bad news is the longer they are in session, the more likely they are to resurrect bad bills.
Arizona lost one of its dedicated state employees when Roberta Abney died suddenly this week. We appreciate her years of service in the Secretary of State's office, where she was always helpful and friendly and ready with a good laugh. We will miss that. On Thursday, the House and Senate observed a moment of silence in her honor.
HB2551 NOW: off-highway vehicles; use; authority; enforcement (Gowan) was scheduled for a Final Read in the House on Thursday, but they did just one bill before adjourning for the week. That means there is still time to reach your legislators on this important issue. HB2551 is an attempt by Arizona Game and Fish to sanction lawlessness by off-highway vehicles (OHVs) on our public lands -- just to make a point and to the detriment of wildlife and wildlife habitat.
HB2551 says that law enforcement can ignore damage to wildlife habitat from OHVs and do no enforcement on federal public lands that have been closed to off-road vehicles. Unmanaged OHV use significantly harms wildlife, wildlife habitat, and cultural sites. Please tell your legislators that you want law enforcement to protect lands, wildlife habitat, wildlife, and cultural sites from irresponsible OHV activities.
Please contact your legislators and ask them to vote no on HB2551.
Consider calling your legislators (senator and house members) and asking them to vote no on this bill as well. To find your legislators' phone numbers, click on Arizona Legislators.
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HB2404 NOW: building codes; energy efficiency (Carter) did not come to the House Floor this week, which means they probably do not currently have the votes. Please continue to let legislators know that you oppose this bill. HB2404 prohibits local government from adopting more energy efficient building codes, which is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce energy use and save ratepayers money.
Please make a phone call to your representatives as well as sending an email via the take action link below. To find your representatives' phone numbers, go to Arizona Representatives. If you are not sure who your representatives are, just use the take action link below and it will give it to you automatically.
Contact your representatives right away and ask them to vote NO on HB2404!
For more information on some of the bills we are tracking, look below or you can view our Legislative Tracker. The Legislative Tracker has a technical glitch right now and I cannot get it to update. I hope to have it resolved shortly.
If you no longer want to receive these updates, just zap me an email or unsubscribe by clicking on "Manage Preferences" at the bottom of the message.
Thank you for caring a lot! You do make a difference!
Warm regards,
Chapter Director Sierra Club – Grand Canyon Chapter (602) 253-8633 http://arizona.sierraclub.org
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Quick Bill Updates
SB1261 permanent early voting lists; amendments (Reagan, Driggs: Worsley) allows the county recorder to notice and remove people who are on the Permanent Early Voting List who did not vote early in the last two elections and if they do not respond in writing and ask to stay on the list. This along with other bills seems to be intended to deter higher voter turnout. OPPOSE. It awaits action in House Committee of the Whole. This may get added to HB2305 in Conference Committee.
SB1263 paid circulators; statewide measures; recall (Reagan: Driggs) requires that all paid circulators be registered with the Secretary of State for statewide measures and candidates -- not legislative candidates, however. This is part of a concerted effort to make it next to impossible to get any measure on the ballot, especially if this bill passed in conjunction with the other measures being considered. OPPOSE. It awaits action in House Committee of the Whole. This may get added to HB2305 in Conference Committee.
SB1264 initiative, referendum and recall(Reagan) erects additional impediments to the initiative and referendum process by providing more reasons and more opportunities for signatures to be thrown out for merely technical reasons. For example, it requires that every blank on a petition sheet have a line through it or be marked NA. The courts have generally deferred to the people relative to getting a measure on the ballot. This seeks to turn that around. OPPOSE. It awaits action in House Committee of the Whole. This may get added to HB2305 in Conference Committee.
SB1288 Arizona water protection fund; projects (Griffin, Burges, Gowan, et al.) prohibits federal agencies from receiving funding through the Arizona Water Protection Fund, which would limit projects on federal public lands and tribal lands. It also modified the board that allocates these dollars and gives total control to agricultural interests. It passed out of the Senate 17-11-2. OPPOSE. It awaits a Third Read in the House.
SCR1006 initiative petitions; filing date (Reagan) refers to the ballot a measure to move the filing date for petition signatures back from four months before the election to May 1. This gives people two fewer months to collect signatures and the Legislature more time to mess with citizen initiatives. OPPOSE. It awaits action in the House Rules Committee.
SCR1012 EPA Actions; Haze (Griffin, Burges, Murphy, et al.) supports the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality's weak regional haze plan and litigation and opposes the stronger Environmental Protection Agency plan. OPPOSE. It passed out of the Senate 17-11-2 and the House 38-22 and has been transmitted back to the Senate.
SCR1013 endangered species act (Griffin, Burges, Shooter, et al.) says the Legislature supports efforts in Congress to "update" the Endangered Species Act to relieve "Arizona from burdensome regulatory measures that have been harmful to this State . . . ." This is a not-so-thinly-veiled attack on the Endangered Species Act. OPPOSE. It passed out of the Senate 17-13 and the House 38-20-2 and has been transmitted back to the Senate.
SCR1016 rejection of unconstitutional federal actions (Crandell, Burges: Melvin, et al.) refers to the ballot a constitutional amendment that allows Arizona to determine if a federal action violates the U.S Constitution and to then reject it. OPPOSE. It awaits action in the House Committee of the Whole.
SCR1019 initiative; referendum; signature allocation (Reagan) requires signatures for a ballot measure to be collected from at least five counties and says that a minimum of 25 percent must be collected from other than Maricopa and Pima counties. This would make it nearly impossible to put measures on the ballot. OPPOSE. It awaits action in the House Rules Committee.
HB2007 ballot measures; proposition 105 disclosure (Ugenti) requires that any campaign literature, publicity pamphlet, and the ballot include language that says ". . .THIS MEASURE MAY NOT BE CHANGED IN THE FUTURE IF APPROVED ON THE BALLOT EXCEPT BY A THREE-FOURTHS VOTE OF THE LEGISLATURE AND THE CHANGE FURTHERS THE PURPOSE OF THE ORIGINAL BALLOT MEASURE, OR BY REFERRING THE CHANGE TO THE BALLOT."(With Rules Amendment) There are still inaccuracies in this brief statement, even with the Rules amendment, including that the measure can be changed by referring the change to the ballot. Referring a measure to the ballot changes nothing. The measure must be APPROVED BY THE VOTERS. This measure will not better inform voters, but is clearly intended to confuse, erect additional impediments, and to discourage citizen initiatives. OPPOSE. It awaits action in the Senate Committee of the Whole. This may get added to HB2305 in Conference Committee.
HB2305 initiatives; filings: circulators (Farnsworth) requires that petitions filed for an initiative be organized by county, circulator, and notary. While it may not sound that harmful on the face of it, this measure would provide just another reason for disqualifying ballot measures on a technicality and again make it more difficult for any grassroots efforts. OPPOSE. It is still scheduled to go to a conference committee, although the committee was canceled for the fifth time this week, so it is unclear what is up. It may or may not have additional measures added to it.
HB2621 fund; state parks; roads; fee (Escamilla,
Cardenas, Contreras, et al.) establishes an optional fee when you register your
vehicle. The fee would help fund the state parks system, although would not provide a sustainable fund for parks. We need a dedicated funding source to really help our park system, but this is a good start. SUPPORT. It awaits action in the Senate Committee of the Whole.
HCR2026 clean elections; education funding (Boyer, Mesnard, Petersen, et al.) refers to the ballot a measure to redirect Clean Elections dollars to education. This is a cynical bill to attempt to divide advocates for campaign finance reform and education. OPPOSE. It awaits action in the Senate Committee of the Whole.
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