Phoenix found good, bad in the legislative period | City news

IIt could have been worse.

That appears to be the overall assessment by the Phoenix City Council of the recently concluded 2021 state legislature session.

Considering that in the 171 day session, 473 of 1,774 enacted laws were passed and 412 of them were signed by the governor, a detailed memo from the Phoenix Office of Governmental Relations to City Council created a scorecard intended in the Generally convenient for the city.

“The city has faced a significant number of challenging legislative issues on a wide range of issues and it has been a successful year,” said the city office.

It found that 10 passed bills were beneficial to the city, eight were deemed “harmful” and 21 more were successfully rejected by the city.

The city apparently did not comment on another 26 bills that were “observed”. Of these 26 laws, 10 were signed by the governor and the rest failed to get through in one chamber or another.

But the biggest threat the city sees is the huge tax cut that lawmakers approved in the evenings of the session last month.

The city fought against this tax break, which mainly benefits the richest Arizonans.

On the one hand, the city memo welcomed a 3% increase in government revenue that Phoenix will receive.

This increase was implemented by proponents of tax cuts in the Republican-dominated legislature. It took every GOP vote to hit permanent tax cuts of $ 1.3 billion – and possibly $ 1.8 billion – and the $ 12.8 billion spending plan for fiscal year 2021-22 .

While Phoenix government relations officials said the increase in state revenue “will help the city of Phoenix meet its revenue projections,” they warned that the income tax cut will “reduce our share of state revenue.”

In explaining its approach to assessing the legislature’s activities, the Government Relations Office says it is “guided by the principles advocated by the Mayor and the Council”.

“Our highest priorities have been to collect and maintain collective income, to fight back against unsupported mandates, to protect our local government and to continue our commitment to water resources.”

Bills approved by Phoenix officials

The city was pleased to announce the adoption of SB 1451, which improves the chances of firefighters with certain cancers and related diseases that result in disability or death of receiving workers compensation.

Other successful bills that pleased the city council included HB 2027, which increases penalties for leaving the site of a car accident; HB 2034, which empowers local and state governments to remove “harmful weeds” such as Russian olive and salt cedars; and HB 2066, which enables the police to take a person arrested in one district on the basis of an arrest warrant from another district to the nearest judge.

It also welcomed the adoption of HB 2075, which keeps the fingerprints of every person arrested, and HB 2321, which requires the State Treasury to keep a permanent public record of “all drafts and final decisions, procedures and administrative communications”.

The city also received approval from SB 1056, which extends the maximum contract length between a county or municipality and an energy or water service company to 25 years to pay for the additional cost of energy or water saving measures.

SB 1420 received applause for requiring counties and municipalities to accept consular identification issued by a foreign government as a valid identification document when the foreign government uses “biometric identity verification techniques”.

City bills strike back

Among the bills that the city successfully opposed, threatening local jurisdictions with power to make their own rules, was a measure that would have prevented municipalities from setting a minimum wage for businesses within their borders.

Another reason the city rejected some bills was because it threatened local revenues – one that would have prevented communities from paying a fee to cable companies that bury their lines in public rights of way.

Phoenix officials were also delighted to see the defeat of a bill that prevented companies from putting in place incentive programs for COVID-19 vaccinations, three measures that prohibit police budget cuts from one year to the next, a bill that prohibits funding from urban Homeless support programs would be cut, and a measure that would have created “temporary building permits” for single-family home construction.

The city also successfully opposed a move that would have prohibited municipalities from fingerprinting food truck operators and charging for their licenses, as well as one that removed license taxes on aircraft registration fees, thereby eliminating revenue for airport improvements.

Other measures, which went up in flames in part because of opposition from Phoenix, included a bill that restricted counties and municipalities from hiring private lawyers; a measure that restricted municipalities’ ability to regulate the sale of tobacco and steam products; and another that prevented governments from using social media for official purposes.

Lose efforts

There were eight successful laws that Phoenix unsuccessfully fought, many because they would have cost the city money.

Such a measure authorizes the district treasurer to waive penalties and interest for late tax bills.

The city also lost its battle against a measure requiring members of civil police review panels to complete a policy academy at a community college and complete at least 20 hours of virtual law enforcement training, as well as a measure requiring two-thirds of all police review panels to include members department supervised by her.

A related bill that the city has fought unsuccessfully is one that allows any lawmaker to seek an investigation by the attorney general that the lawmaker believes is a violation of state law.

Another measure that the city failed to win could be contentious – at least until the next pandemic. This law prohibits the revocation of licenses for a company that opposes an emergency ordinance.

The city also lost its battle against a law that weakens water quality standards and restricts government oversight of surface water quality.

The city also lost a battle against a law that radically changed the operation of fire fighting districts.

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