Friday, October 1, 2021
PHOENIX – If your car or truck is blocking a sidewalk, beware. A new Arizona law makes it a crime, punishable by a $250 fine.
The new law is one of 12 that went into effect Wednesday. Others deal with giving penalties for “doxxing” (posting personal information about someone), classifying gun stores as essential businesses and adding new provisions to driver license suspensions for aggressive or reckless driving and street racing.
The law, House Bill 2395, is designed to keep walkways clear for everyone, including those who can’t “just go around” such obstacles. Public or private driveways, crosswalks and sidewalks are among the areas included in the law’s provisions.
Rep. Jennifer Longdon, D-Phoenix, introduced HB 2395 in January, and it passed in February on a 49-11 vote. Gov. Doug Ducey signed it in May.
During a February hearing of the House Transportation Committee, Longdon said when vehicles – especially trucks with hitches – impede sidewalks, it makes passing difficult for many pedestrians, including those in wheelchairs, who are parents with small children, or are blind and use aids.
“It’s an effort to be more mindful to make sure we’re protecting pedestrians,” said Longdon, who uses a wheelchair after being paralyzed from the chest down in a random shooting in 2004.
At the hearing, she shared a story of someone she knew, who is blind and uses a sight cane, walking into a cactus while trying to move around a sidewalk obstruction.
The law does not apply if a vehicle is temporarily parked for the purpose of loading or unloading, in emergency situations or when complying with other laws or directions of a police officer or traffic control device.
It also does not apply to vehicles or drivers delivering official U.S. mail so long as the driver does not leave the vehicle and it’s only stopped momentarily.
Thursday, September 30, 2021
Visitors to Saguaro National Park West will see scenic roads closed from Oct. 4-30 for construction.
Access to Bajada Loop Drive from the Hugh Norris Trail Head to Golden Gate Road will be closed from Oct. 4-15.
After those improvements, the Bajada Loop and its amenities, such as the Sus Picnic Area, Hugh Norris Trailhead, Valley View Overlook Trail, Bajada Wash Trail and all of Golden Gate Road (Signal Hill, Ez-Kim-In-Zin, Sendero Esperanza) will be closed from Oct. 16-30.
“This will help ensure the safety of the crew working on the one-lane road, as well as any visitor who may not be aware of the closure notice,” Saguaro’s Facility Manager Richard Goepfrich said.
All traffic to these locations will be prohibited, including pedestrians and cyclists. Park officials said heavy machinery in these areas will be dangerous for all traffic. Large construction vehicles will need to use the entire one-lane road for easy transportation.
Visit nps.gov/sagu/planyourvisit/conditions for updates on construction.
The Marana Unified School District Governing Board ended their special meeting on Wednesday with no action on requiring face masks on Marana school campuses.
Board member John Lewandowski called the Sept. 28 emergency meeting on the previous day and planned to make a motion for the institution of a mask mandate. Marana school campuses have gone to mask-optional status since their previous mandate ended on Sept 29.
New data from a recently released study by the CDC, co-authored with Pima County, showed K-12 schools without mask requirements were 3.5 times more likely to experience a COVID outbreak. Data was taken from 999 public schools in Pima and Maricopa counties.
Board member Hunter Holt surprised the Board on Wednesday by making a motion to relinquish the authority to institute a mask mandate to Superintendent Dr. Dan Streeter.
“My motion is to give Dr. Streeter sole authority to implement and remove any sort of mask mandate from here on out,” Holt said.
Holt said he trusted Streeter to make the proper decision. He also said that COVID case numbers have improved in Marana. The Arizona Department of Health Services has recorded a slow decrease of overall COVID cases in Pima County since the August surge. Pima County K-12 schools are still considered to have high transmissibility, according to ADHS.
“This is really ridiculous. John called this meeting so the five of us could vote on re-imposing a mask mandate and now Hunter has come in from left field and has thrown this curveball,” said board member Tom Carlson. "Obviously, Dr. Streeter doesn’t know what to say on this.”
Streeter seemed confused by the surprise motion and recommended the Board vote no. The motion to give Streeter mandate authority failed.
Lewandowski then asked the board to extend the mask mandate. The motion was not seconded. Marana Unified School District will remain mask-optional until the board decides otherwise.
“I was very disappointed,” Lewandowski said after the meeting.
“I thought I was doing what was in the best interest of kids and staff for safety.”
Lewandowski pledged to ask Board President Dr. Maribel Lopez to revisit the subject at a future meeting but said she could choose not to include it.
Education advocacy groups on Tuesday filed hundreds of thousands of signatures to block Gov. Doug Ducey’s sweeping income tax cuts, the largest in state history, from going into effect and forcing a public vote on them.
For that to actually happen, at least 118,823 of the 215,787 signatures the Invest in Arizona coalition submitted must be deemed valid by elections officials. If they are, Arizona voters will decide the fate of the tax cuts in November 2022.
Ducey’s income tax cuts, which serve as his legacy policy achievement during his two terms as governor, dramatically reform Arizona’s tax system. Instead of a progressively graduated system with a maximum rate of 4.5%, Arizona will shift to two income tax rates: 2.55% for people who earn $27,272 annually and 2.98% for those who earn more than that. Legislative budget analysts estimate those cuts will cost the state about $1 billion in revenue.
The median household income in Arizona is about $62,000, which will realize a tax savings of $42 under the new proposal. The benefit of the tax cut skyrockets as income increases: Households making at least $500,000 will save $10,000; those making at least $1 million save nearly $45,000; those making more than $5 million will save nearly $350,000 a year. (Those estimates by legislative budget analysists also include the effects of legislation capping the maximum income tax rate at 4.5%, even for those subject to the Invest in Education surcharge. That law will go into effect.)
The referendum is a reaction to the tax cuts Ducey championed, and which serve as his legacy policy achievement during his two terms as governor. The tax cuts themselves came in response to, and were designed to blunt the effect of, the Invest in Education Act on wealthy Arizonans. That measure, which voters approved in 2020, imposes a 3.5% surcharge on income greater than $250,000 for individuals and $500,000 for couples, with the money directed to public schools to increase teacher pay and boost overall funding.
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
WASHINGTON – New projections show that Lake Mead and Lake Powell could reach “critically low reservoir elevations” sooner than expected, spurring experts to say that “bold actions” will be needed to change course.
The Bureau of Reclamation report released Thursday shows an 88% chance that Lake Powell could fall below 3,525 feet by next August, a level that would endanger hydropower production, with chances Lake Mead will hit critical levels in the next few years.
The five-year projection is grimmer than estimates released just two months ago, and shows that a drought contingency plan triggered earlier this year by low reservoir levels, while it was aggressive, may not be enough, one official said.
“We need to take more actions in both Lake Powell and Lake Mead,” said Thomas Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources. “More actions mean finding a way to get people to conserve their water, or more mandatory reductions to stabilize the lake.”
That was echoed Thursday by Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy as Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute.
“We need to take additional bold steps to keep Lake Mead from declining precipitously,” Porter said.
The Bureau of Reclamation report estimates river levels in the lower Colorado River basin over the next five years, particularly the levels needed for the two main reservoirs in the basin to keep functioning – 3,525 feet above sea level in Lake Powell and 1,025 feet in Lake Mead.
The latest estimates say there is an 88% chance Lake Powell will fall below the critical level by next August, with odds falling to 53% in 2023 and falling to 41% by 2026. For Lake Mead, the chance of falling below the critical level is 12% in 2024, rising to 22% in each of the next two years.
Both estimates are several percentage points grimmer than a five-year forecast released in June, when analysts included water releases that were expected from upper basin dams would help the downriver reservoirs. Because those releases are still being worked out, they were removed from the latest forecast.
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
