Legislative briefs

Plastic bags

PHOENIX — For the second time in two years, state lawmakers approved — and Gov. Doug Ducey signed — legislation designed to trim the ability of cities, towns and counties to regulate plastic bags.

And this time they think they’ve got it legally right.

HB 2131 makes it illegal for local governments to impose any tax, fee or deposit on any disposable bags. It is aimed at overturning an existing ordinance in Bisbee as well as pre-empting similar efforts being considered in other communities, including Tucson, Flagstaff and Tempe.

But the measure is broader than that, pre-empting local codes on everything from cloth to glass and aluminum that is used to transport merchandise or food to or from a business.

Ducey signed the measure Monday, siding with the businesses who want the ban — and against the communities who want to exercise local control.

“This is common-sense legislation that ensures businesses didn’t have to deal with onerous and inconsistent regulations across the state,” said press aide Daniel Scarpinato, pointing out there are more than 90 cities and towns in the state.

“Having a patchwork of regulations is problematic,” he continued. “Gov. Ducey wants to simplify doing business in Arizona and that’s what this law does.”

Ducey signed identical legislation last year, only to find it challenged in court because it was combined with other provisions dealing with energy audits. Challengers said that runs afoul of constitutional requirements that legislation deal only with single subjects.

Adopting the change gets around that problem.

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But that does not remove all the legal obstacles to the measure.

Tempe City Councilwoman Lauren Kuby points out that the Arizona Constitution specifically allows charter cities to approve laws dealing with strictly local issues, no matter what the Legislature says. And Kuby, through attorney Tim Hogan of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, contends that regulating recycling programs and what does and does not go into landfills fits that definition.

That means the litigation will continue — at least as far as how the law affects the 18 Arizona cities with charters.

Illuminated billboards

PHOENIX — Deciding the astronomy industry was too important to endanger, a Senate panel killed legislation to expand the areas in the state where illuminated billboards would be allowed.

The 6-3 vote by the Committee on Commerce and Workforce Development came after Lori Allen, director of Kitt Peak National Observatory, read off a list of financial impacts that world-class telescopes bring to the state. That includes $250 million in annual economic activity, $12 million in tax revenues each year, $1.2 billion in capital investments and more than 3,300 jobs.

“These are high-tech jobs,” she said. “These are the kind of jobs we want.”

Monday’s vote came despite a last-ditch effort by Tim LaSota, lobbyist for Lamar Advertising, to salvage the measure by agreeing to cut the area where the billboards would be allowed by about half of what he had initially requested.

Monday’s vote is a significant victory for astronomers who insisted that the proposal amounted to the industry going back on a deal negotiated in 2012.