P.L.A.N. Update - Legislature Calls it a Day‏

Legislature Declares Sine Die at 11:07 p.m. Thursday, April 29

After a week of expedited floor action and conference committees, the legislature adjourned at 11:07 p.m. on Thursday, April 29. Now that the 49th Legislature's 2nd Regular Session has adjourned, the Governor has ten days (not including Sundays) to act on the remaining bills that were sent over by the Legislature. Bills without an emergency clause or specific enactment date will take effect on July 28, 2010.

During this session, 1233 legislative bills were introduced, of which 352 were approved and sent to the Governor. At this writing, Governor Brewer has signed 209 bills and vetoed five. Once a bill reaches the Governor's desk, she must either sign the bill, send the bill to the Secretary of State to become law without her signature, or veto the bill. The legislature posts the status of bills at http://www.azleg.gov/FinalDisposition.asp.

Disposition of Other Bills Of Interest

SB 1144: Drug Offenses; Definitions (Sen. John Huppenthal, R-Chandler) adds a number of drugs to the "dangerous drugs" list in the criminal code. The Governor signed this bill on April 28.

HB 2246: Regulation of Fireworks (Rep. Andy Biggs, R–Gilbert) permits the sale of consumer and display fireworks. This bill is similar to one that was vetoed by Governor Brewer last session. Other than the local preemption from regulating display fireworks, the city is concerned that more people could be physically harmed by these devices and that the state fire marshal, who is tasked to adopt and enforce rules related to the storage of fireworks, is not funded sufficiently to enforce the proposed law. This bill was transmitted to the Governor on April 26.

HB 2338: Yellow Lights; Duration; Photo Enforcement (Rep. Frank Antenori, R–Tucson) initially would have impacted the use of "red light running" cameras at our intersections. The bill has now been amended to regulate only the timing of the traffic signals. HB 2338 was transmitted to the Governor on April 27.

SB 1070: Immigration; Law Enforcement; Safe Neighborhoods (Sen. Russell Pearce, R – Mesa) enacts numerous changes to laws dealing with immigration. Some of these changes include:

• prohibiting local governments from adopting policies that restrict or limit their law enforcement officers from enforcing federal immigration law;
• establishing a crime for willful failure to carry/complete an alien registration document;
• requiring law enforcement officers to attempt to confirm the immigration status of a person they come in contact with whom they reasonably believe is an alien who is unlawfully in the United States; and
• makes it a class one misdemeanor for a driver to impede traffic while in the act of offering work to a nearby pedestrian, or for the pedestrian to enter the vehicle.

Source: P.L.A.N.