The following information was compiled by Stand Indivisible AZ, Scottsdale. They did a spectacular job in summarizing all the bills before the AZ legislature this week. Please read, get on your RTS account and take action. Most of these bills are deplorable and will do nothing to help the citizens of Arizona.
Please join one of the Prescott RTS groups and they will get you started in making your voice heard. Abby Brillhas a group action onMonday mornings at 8:30 am(LINK)and Mavis Brauer has a group on Monday afternoons at 1:00. Here’s theLINK. Stand Indivisible AZ also has an RTS Cafe onMonday morning at 9:00 a.m.ClickHEREto register.
AZ LEGISLATURE – 2021
55th Legislature – First Regular Session – Week 4
WEEK OF JANUARY 31, 2021
THE HORROR – APOCALYPSE PENDING. The worst, broadest, most concentrated and intense spectrum of attacks this Bulletin has seen in three years of tracking. Attacks by the narrow legislative majority on Democracy, Women’s Rights, Public Education, the Environment, and more. Flagrant moves to concentrate raw power in the powerful few – and force a dystopian future on all.
A FEW GOOD BILLS. Sadly too few below, and they need our support.
FAMILIAR WITH THIS RESOURCE SECTION? – SKIP RIGHT TO THE RTS DAILY LIST BELOW TO TAKE ACTION
DO YOUR “REQUEST TO SPEAK” AND/OR CALLS IN HEARING DAY ORDER
Please do your RTS as soon as you can, and at least one day in advance of the Hearing day. Our report below is in date order.
PRESSED FOR TIME? Do the RTS in chunks. But stay with it, stay ahead of the Hearing date, and do more as soon as you can. This is all critical.
FOR MORE ABOUT THE CONTEXT AND THE BILLS – ESPECIALLY THE ANTI-DEMOCRACY BILLS – For excellent analysis, see the Legislature Weekly Update by Melinda Iyer/CEBV HERE
FOR DEPTH ON EDUCATION BILLS, see Save Our Schools Arizona Weekly Report HERE
FOR DEPTH ON ENVIRONMENTAL BILLS, see the latest Sierra Club AZ Report HERE
“REQUEST TO SPEAK” RECOMMENDATIONS IN ORDER OF HEARING DATE
MONDAY FEB. 1 HEARINGS – ATTACKS ON DEMOCRACY
SB1003. OPPOSE. 2:00 p.m. SENATE GOVERNMENT COMM. Prevents voters who missed signing their Early Voting envelope from doing so within the five day window after Election Day allowed by some county Recorders of Elections.
SB1020. OPPOSE.2:00 p.m. SENATE GOVERNMENT COMM. Prevents county Recorders from designating emergency non-electioneering polling places.
SB1068. OPPOSE. 2:00 p.m. SENATE GOVERNMENT COMM. Gives the appointed, partisan Governor’s Regulatory Review Council, and the partisan Legislative Council, veto power over the elected Secretary of State’s elections manual.
SB1105. OPPOSE.2:00 p.m. SENATE GOVERNMENT COMM. Exposes Citizens’ Initiatives and Referenda to attack and danger of disqualification after petitions are gathered. Changes the format of Initiative descriptions in order to bypass the AZ Supreme Court decision that every single provision of an initiative or referendum doesn’t have to be outlined in the short description.
SB1240. OPPOSE.2:00 p.m. SENATE GOVERNMENT COMM. Requires county Recorders to separate voting center ballots by precinct before making the already-required 2% hand count. Would delay results and add to cost with no demonstrated need.
SB1329. OPPOSE.2:00 p.m. SENATE GOVERNMENT COMM. Requires the Secretary of State’s elections procedures manual to be approved by a partisan committee of legislators rather than by the Governor and Attorney General.
SB1358. OPPOSE. 2:00 p.m. SENATE GOVERNMENT COMM. Prevents county Recorders from holding Voter Registration Drives at any location other than government buildings. Over a million AZ citizens are not registered to vote.
HB2098. SUPPORT.2:00 p.m. HOUSE HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES COMM. Requires schools to submit missing children reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
HB2372. OPPOSE.2:00 p.m. HOUSE LAND, AGRICULTURE COMM. Imposes limits and impediments on people seeking to sue CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) for odor, noise and other nuisances to neighboring properties.
2:00 p.m. MONDAY: SENATE GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE HEARING – LIVESTREAM Hearing on the 7 bills above. Public may livestreamHERE
TUESDAY FEB. 2 HEARINGS – ENVIRONMENT; EDUCATION
HB2737. OPPOSE. 2:00 p.m. HOUSE NATURAL RESOURCES, ENERGY & WATER COMM. One of several current attacks on the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), the independent elected branch of government charged with protecting citizen ratepayers and the environment against the monopoly utilities and improving the use of renewable energy. Allows any legislative politician to order the AZ Attorney General to investigate the ACC and would withhold 10% of the ACC budget if the AZ Supreme Court finds the ACC is not enforcing laws properly.
HB2714. OPPOSE.2:00 p.m. HOUSE NATURAL RESOURCES, ENERGY & WATER COMM. Subsidizes forestry company investment in biomass, which is not carbon neutral, pollutes and does not contemplate forest health.
HCM2003. OPPOSE. 2:00 p.m. HOUSE NATURAL RESOURCES, ENERGY & WATER COMM. Encourages operation of the old, inefficient Yuma Desalination Plant resulting in brine flow into fresh waters.
SB1452. OPPOSE.2:00 p.m. SENATE EDUCATION COMM. Would seriously undermine public education by making two-thirds of school children in AZ eligible for vouchers to use in private and religious school, diverting our taxes to support private businesses and non-public institutions, and moreover, with little accountability for the use of public funds. Also would effectively cancel the Prop 208 tax passed by voters in the last election by draining it away for private use.
SB1376. SUPPORT. 2:00 p.m. SENATE EDUCATION COMM. Requires health education instruction in schools to include a mental health component, helping children recognize early symptoms and seek help.
HB2125. SUPPORT.2:00 p.m. HOUSE EDUCATION COMM. Requires that students PreK-4th Grade not be suspended or expelled except for dangerous conduct (weapons, drugs, health, safety) on school grounds, and not until behavioral interventions are attempted.
2:00 p.m. TUESDAY: HOUSE NATURAL RESOURCES, ENERGY & WATER COMMITTEE HEARING – LIVESTREAM
Hearing on HB2248 and 3 other bills. Public may livestream HERE.
WEDNESDAY FEB. 3 HEARINGS – TAX FAVORITISM; PUBLIC WELFARE
SB1108. OPPOSE. 9:00 a.m. SENATE FINANCE COMM. Cuts $166 Million in tax revenue needed for underfunded schools and public services by reducing property taxes nearly in half. Wanted by corporations and real estate developers. Also, environmentally bad because it taxes electric and hybrid vehicles but does not equivalently increase gasoline and diesel vehicles.
SB1273. OPPOSE. 9:00 a.m. SENATE FINANCE COMM. Expands tax credit vouchers for Private School Tuition Organizations to use for extracurricular activities. On top of $200 million already donated to STO’s. Takes tax revenues away from already underfunded public education.
SB1309. OPPOSE. 9:00 a.m. SENATE FINANCE COMM. Gives a big property tax break to a gasoline manufacturing plant whose product contributes to climate change.
HB2215 and HB2228. SUPPORT. 2:00 p.m. HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS AND TRANSPORTATION COMMS. Bills funding repairs to roads serving the Hopi/ Navajo communities (HB2215) and the Ganado School area (HB2228) that become dangerous and impassable and cut off safe access to schools and hospitals.
HB2261. SUPPORT. 2:00 p.m. HOUSE CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM COMM. Reforms requiring prisons to provide for incarcerated women menstrual hygiene products, regular visitation of children, nutritious meals and restricted restraints for pregnant women, and limits on body searches by male employees.
B2395. SUPPORT. 2:00 p.m. HOUSE TRANSPORTATION COMM. Makes it illegal to park vehicles across the sidewalk, blocking wheelchair access and creating other safety issues. Sponsored by a wheelchair-bound legislator.
SB1364. OPPOSE. 2:00 p.m. SENATE NATURAL RESOURCES, ENERGY & WATER COMM. Exempts injection wells from the existing fresh water protection program.
TIP: HOW TO LIVE-STREAM A COMMITTEE HEARING: Go to www.azleg.gov, click on “Committees” on the first page, click “Standing Committees” in the drop-down list, select the committee on the Committee Overview page, find the Agenda Date in the Committee Agendas section at the bottom, click on “PDF Document”, find the Livestream link on the agenda page, and click the link.
THURSDAY FEB. 4 HEARINGS – WOMEN’S RIGHTS; PUBLIC SAFETY
SB1381. OPPOSE.9:00 a.m. SENATE JUDICIARY COMM. Bans ending a pregnancy due to any disability in the fetus including one that would be incompatible with life. Would force live births with extreme uncertain or doomed measures to preserve life. Removes the discretion of grieving families including where there is no hope of survival.
SB1382. OPPOSE.9:00 a.m. SENATE JUDICIARY COMM. Defines firearm and ammunition stores as “essential businesses” that cannot be closed during a state of emergency, a time when the likelihood of deadly events is exacerbated.
SB1457. OPPOSE. 9:00 a.m. SENATE JUDICIARY COMM. Multiple attacks on women’s rights. Gives “unborn children at every stage of development” (including a mass of cells) the rights of a person. Makes abortion due to genetic abnormality, including incompatibility with life, a class 3 felony. Allows a sperm donor and his parents to sue for damages a woman who ends her pregnancy. Effectively bans abortion-inducing drugs.
9:00 a.m. THURSDAY: SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE HEARING – LIVESTREAM
Hearing on the above and many other bills. The public may livestream HERE.
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RULES COMMITTEE BILLS – 1:00 p.m., MONDAY, FEB 1
Our RTS will have little effect on the Rules Committees, whose purpose is to check the legality and constitutionality of bills before sending them to the entire Senate or House for vote. However, please do make sure you have done RTS on the following especially harmful bills.
SB1069. OPPOSE. Would purge 225,000 voters from the Permanent Early Voting List by eliminating those who did not vote in the last two elections.
SB1010. OPPOSE. Allows wealthy interests to demand and pay for an election recount.
HB2248. OPPOSE. Would prohibit the elected AZ Corporation Commission from requiring the use of clean and renewable energy sources by utilities, and wipe out the standards it already set last year. Attempt to claw power to the Legislature.
SCR1003, SCR1010, SCR1014. OPPOSE. Would substitute the 90-politician Legislature for the Governor in maintaining a State of Emergency.
HCR2002. OPPOSE. Resolution for a U.S. Constitutional amendment to limit the U.S. Supreme Court to nine justices. Coming to you from the same court-packers who pushed expanding the AZ Supreme Court from 5 to 7 justices in 2016.
ABC’S OF SMART ACTIVISM – YOUR VOICE IS NEEDED AND EASY TO MAKE HEARD
A. USE “REQUEST TO SPEAK” – VOTE ON BILLS – HERE IS HELP.
If you used Request to Speak last year, your account should still exist. Use it with last year’s password if you still have it, or click “Forgot your password?”
To get a “Request to Speak” (RTS) account at the Legislature, contact Civic Engagement Beyond Voting HERE requesting an account. They will create an account at the Capitol and notify you when ready. There is no “speaking” necessary. You use the system from home, online, quickly and efficiently.
Options for training include this Education Video (5 min.) Link HERE:
This moves fast, and you don’t need some of the info presented, but it’s useful in part. .
B. THREE EASY STEPS FOR CALLING LEGISLATORS – B1, B2, B3
B1. WE ARE IN LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT ONE.
B2. OUR LEGISLATORS ARE
Senator Karen Fann kfann@azleg.gov 602-926-5874
Rep. Judy Burges jburges@azleg.gov 602-926-3256
Rep. Qwang Nguyen qnguyen@azleg.gov 602- 926-3258
Load your three legislators’ phone numbers into your Contacts on your phone
B3. CALL YOUR LEGISLATORS’ OFFICE STAFF ON CRUCIAL BILLS. CALLING IS QUICK AND NOT AT ALL SCARY. STAFF MEMBERS ARE NICE.
SOURCES INCLUDE: Arizona Legislature, azleg.gov, CEBV/Iyer AZ Legislature Weekly Update, UUJAZ/VUU Arizona Legislative Alert, SOS Arizona Legislative Updates, Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter Legislative Updates, Arizona League of Women Voters, Arizona Capitol Times, and many more.
THANK YOU FOR WORKING FOR GOOD LAWS IN ARIZONA !!
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