Another week has gone by and we are no further along in solving the budget crisis than we were last week.  It's very frustrating, for as every day passes we dig ourselves into a deeper hole with less chance of recovering without going into more debt.  We are back to small group meetings to give our input to the Appropriations Chairman.  He expected that we would actually have some agreements this week; but as of Tuesday, the committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday has been cancelled -- so much for the expectations.

I don't have many bills that I am prime sponsor on this year.  As I indicated earlier, our efforts should be focused on fiscal matters -- not seeing how many news laws we can pass this session.  But there were a few that I thought were worth pursuing.

HB 2132 - county water authority; Colorado River: Deletes the requirement that 3,500 acre feet of water from the City of Kingman's Colorado River contract (now being utilized by the Mohave County Water Authority) be used for industrial uses.    MCWA reports that since its formation in 1996, it has not received a single request for water for an industrial use.  This legislation would result in additional water being available for municipal use to members of MCWA (Bullhead City, Kingman, Lake Havasu City, Mohave County, Golden Shores Irrigation District, Mohave Valley Irrigation and Drainage District, and Mohave Water Conservation District).  It would also provide Kingman with additional funds to develop its groundwater resources.

HB 2224 - Service company contracts:  Provides that all issuers of home warranty type contracts follow the same regulations and bonding requirements.  There are some home builders who are issuing these contracts, but do not have to post the bond that the strictly home warranty companies do.

HB 2357 - Historic trucks; use fuel taxes:  exempts diesel trucks that are 25 or more years old, have a historic vehicle license plate, and are not used for commercial purposes from the higher taxes paid on diesel fuel by commercial vehicles.  This will benefit a small number of collectors of these vintage vehicles.

HB 2721 - Amateur radio; structures; accommodation:  This is the same bill I ran last year that would require cities, towns and home owner associations to give "reasonable accommodation" to persons wanting to erect antennae.  It passed the House 58-2, but did not get a hearing in the Senate.  I'm trying again this year, and believe it will pass this year.

HB 2728 - Water banking; technical correction; clarification:  This merely changes the words "the effective date of this amendment to this section" to "September 18, 2003."

No bill number assigned yet:  To allow the Director of the AZ Dept. of Water Resources to set the fee for an application to transfer water out of state.  The fee can be based on several factors, including the amount of time likely to be expended in processing the application.  This is the result of the Beaver Dam water transfer application that I wrote much about last year.  The application fee is now set at $500, with potential profits in the millions of dollars, and the Dept. must defend our water against these potential transfers.

I'm also considering filing my mandatory physician's reporting bill again, but am still negotiating with interested parties and waiting to see if it will get a hearing in Transportation Committee.  More on this later.

Until next week,

Nancy