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PHOENIX — Some state lawmakers who backed Arizona's new employer sanctions law last year now are pushing to dilute some of its provisions.

Rep. Bill Konopnicki, R-Safford, prime sponsor of the rollback, wants the law altered so a firm cannot lose its license to do business for having an undocumented worker on the payroll unless the worker was hired after the law took effect Jan. 1.

He said it's not fair to punish employers who had no opportunity to verify the legal status of new workers through the federal government's E-Verify database program, as required by the sanctions law.

Further, Konopnicki wants to require prosecutors to prove "regular, repeated and intentional actions" of illegal hiring before a license could be suspended or revoked. Companies would not be penalized for "isolated, sporadic or accidental acts."

Konopnicki's bills also would limit the types of licenses a judge could take away, a move Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, who crafted the original measure, said could exempt more than half of Arizona businesses from any type of punishment.

And even in those cases left, a company would be subject to license suspension or revocation only if guilt was proved "beyond a reasonable doubt," the same standard that applies for criminal convictions.

"You're talking about not just taking away a person's ability to make a living," Konopnicki explained. "You're talking about shutting down an investment, you're talking about jeopardizing bank loans and you're talking about having employees without jobs."

Sen. Carolyn Allen, R-Scottsdale, is one of the co-sponsors of Konopnicki's proposal who also voted for last year's bill.

She said she has since found provisions in the original law she does not like, such as allowing prosecutors to pursue investigations on anonymous complaints, an option the new proposal would foreclose.

Allen said she saw a legislative solution as preferable to an initiative, which, if approved by voters, could not be altered by lawmakers.

Konopnicki said the historic legislation, the first state law in the country to punish firms that knowingly hire undocumented workers, is flawed. "It was drafted too quickly, and there wasn't enough attention to detail."

But Pearce said Konopnicki, who owns several McDonald's franchises, has an ulterior motive.

"It's everything he can do to create an amnesty program for illegal employers," he said.

Konopnicki said the 2007 legislation is a minefield that will entrap companies that make inadvertent errors. He said that's why one of his bills would forbid license revocation unless prosecutors could show a "pattern or practice" of hiring people not authorized to work in this country.

"You pick somebody up on the corner, you pay them cash, you don't pay taxes, that's really where the target ought to be," Konopnicki said.

But Pearce said there is no reason to exempt any employer from the provisions of the law. And he said there are sufficient safeguards to ensure no one is unfairly prosecuted.

He noted the law gives a "rebuttable presumption" of innocence to any company that has checked a new employee's legal status through the E-Verify program. And a judge cannot suspend or revoke a license unless prosecutors prove the business knowingly or intentionally hired an undocumented worker.

Another change Konopnicki wants is a clear exemption from punishment for hiring independent contractors who are not here legally. But Pearce said that creates another loophole, allowing businesses to simply fire their employees and instead contract with them.

Other lawmakers who voted for last year's legislation and now are working with Konopnicki include Sens. Jake Flake, R-Snowflake, and Amanda Aguirre, D-Yuma, and Rep. Jack Brown, D-St. Johns.