Request to Speak

2024 Legislative Session begins Monday: Weigh in on bad water bills now

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On Monday, the Arizona Legislature will start its 2024 session, kicking off with the live State of the State address from Governor Hobbs. The Sierra Club and other environmental organizations presented a list of priorities for the Arizona Legislature and Governor at the Capitol. The focus of the priorities is water, but climate/clean energy, democracy, and environmental … Read more

Arizona House

Tax Cuts R Us: Third Round of Massive Tax Cuts in House Ways & Means

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How can a “pro-life” state be #50 for Adverse Childhood Experiences? Because the Arizona Legislature prioritizes corporate welfare over child welfare. It’s that simple. The House Ways and Means Committee has passed six tax breaks in the past two weeks. Tomorrow’s agenda has 12 bills, including eight additional bills that are tax breaks or other … Read more

Actions to Protect AZ Water: for TODAY and this week at the Arizona State Legislature

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This week there are some bills that could affect our water being heard at the Arizona State Legislature.

The first action requires a quick phone call. Please, take a couple minutes to call your state Representatives before it goes to a vote (which could be anytime.)

The rest of the bills are being heard in committee. If you have registered for the Request to Speak, you can sign in on the system on the Arizona Legislature Website.  You can weigh in on RTS anytime before or during that meeting. (See info below.)

PHONE ACTION:

There was a recent attempt to resurrect one of several bad water bills in the House. HB2609 Harquahala non-expansion area; groundwater transfer (Petersen: Cook) allows private water companies in the Harquahala Irrigation Non-expansion area (west of the Phoenix area) to withdraw water to a depth of 1,500 feet rather than 1,000 feet and transport it into an active management area. This violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the 1980 Arizona Groundwater Code and sets a terrible precedent for bypassing statewide groundwater management by importing water from areas outside the Active Management Areas. Speaker of the House, Rusty Bowers, is leading the effort to jam this through over the objections of La Paz County and any who are concerned about further privatizing water. Please call your representatives and ask them to oppose HB2609. If they say they are opposing it, thank them.

To find out who your Rep is, find your district: https://azredistricting.org/districtlocator/

Use that district to find the contact information for your Rep: https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/

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ACTIONS NEEDED BEFORE MONDAY MORNING on HB2111 and 3 Request to Speak items

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Legislative UPDATE from Sandy Bahr from the Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter

This week, the last week to hear bills in committee in the house of origin, is referred to as “hell week,” due to the super long agendas with long lists of bills and strike-everything amendments and the meetings that drag into the night. While there was time to hear a plethora of bad water bills in the Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee, there was no time to even consider ecological water. In fact, many good bills went in the dustbin this week — ecological water, voters’ bill of rights, Equal Rights Amendment, reversing the ban on bans of plastic bags, banning fracking, climate resolutions, and more. While these important bills are dead in their current form, the Sierra Club is not giving up and will continue to look for ways to amend them on to other bills and have our voices heard. Meanwhile, we will also focus on a few of the good ones that got through the first part of the process and on stopping the ones that roll back protections, suppress votes, and make it more difficult to qualify a citizen initiative.

Please send a message to your Representatives asking them to oppose HB2111.

HB2111 S/E water supply; adequacy; exemptions (Griffin) allows counties such as Cochise and Yuma that have adopted water adequacy provisions for subdivisions to rescind them unanimously. If they rescind them, they cannot readopt them for five years. This is likely to result in ever more harm to the San Pedro River due to excessive groundwater pumping and will weaken the limited protections for consumers.

If you are not sure who your legislators are, just use this Find My Legislator link and enter your address. To contact legislators, go to Members.

There are three bills being heard in the House Appropriations Committee Monday morning at 8 a.m. This is an opportunity to weigh in on Request to Speak and leave a comment that becomes part of the public record.

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