Fri, Dec 05, 2008

Tucson Region

2008 legislative session concludes with 5 vetoes, 17 signatures from governor

By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.08.2008
PHOENIX — Gov. Janet Napolitano put a formal end to the 2008 legislative session on Monday, vetoing five more bills and bringing her total this year to 32.
Napolitano used her veto stamp to kill:
● New restrictions on the ability of communities to collect fees from developers.
● Mandating changes in voting procedures used by homeowner associations.
● Diverting state sales taxes on some university construction projects.
The 32 vetoes do not approach Napolitano's record of 58, set in 2005.
The governor also put her signature on 17 other bills. That means she signed 316 items passed by the Legislature into law. She let another one become law without her signature.
One measure the governor liked makes it harder for people who are injured while committing crimes — or their survivors if they are killed — to sue their intended victims.
State lawmakers once provided absolute immunity for crime victims from civil suits. But the state Court of Appeals, in a 2006 ruling, said that was unconstitutional.
This new version is designed to fix that problem.
Napolitano also agreed to extending special property tax breaks now given to power plants that use "renewable resources" to generate electricity. Those breaks were set to expire at the end of 2011. The new law extends that to 2040, a provision backers said would help encourage companies to invest in such plants.
Another new law requires the state to set up an interactive Web site by 2011 that will allow anyone with a computer to see each and every receipt and expenditure of state funds. The database also will have to allow people to search by state agency, specific programs and even the individual companies selling products to the state.
The governor also signed legislation which, for the first time ever, would license loan originators, who are the front-line employees for lenders. This is designed to plug what some believe is a hole in the law where mortgage brokers and bankers are licensed, but the people who help customers fill out the paperwork — and are in a position to put in false information to help people qualify for loans they cannot afford — are not regulated.
She also agreed to set aside $450,000 to begin planning for the renovation of the state Capitol for Arizona's 2012 centennial. And she signed legislation to make it illegal to sell animals on public streets, but only in Pima and Maricopa counties.
The development-fee measure that drew a gubernatorial veto would have barred cities and counties from imposing new charges within 24 months after a development plan or plat was approved. Backers said this is designed to provide predictability for builders.
It also would have made it illegal for counties to assess development fees for schools.
The governor said the purpose of these fees is to "make developers ... assist in paying the public costs of growth."
What is happening, she said, is developers come in every year and try to convince lawmakers to change the way cities calculate, schedule or collect these fees. Napolitano said the state, and maybe even the developers, would be better off with a single, comprehensive fix rather than the "piecemeal basis as we have in the past."
Napolitano also rejected a measure which would have affected homeowner associations in communities where many of the units have been acquired by foreclosure for unpaid property taxes. It would have prohibited the new owner from putting a majority of members on the association board even if that owner controlled more than half the units.
The governor said such a law was unfair and "turns the well accepted tenet of representative governance on its head, giving the minority the majority power and stripping the majority of equal voting rights." And Napolitano said individual associations always remain free to change their bylaws to make such a change.