There are at least 4 bills being proposed that need attention: HB2442 is a bill to repeal the $32 Highway Safety Fee. It raised my blood pressure to write the check to renew our 25 year old vehicle and see that this fee more than doubled the annual registration fee. HB2474 defines what a median is and requires that a person only use the crosswalk area of the median to actually cross the roadway. This bill addresses the safety issue of persons distracting drivers at median crosswalks. This does not impact walking along or walking dogs up and down our grassy medians. HB2485 deals with vehicles parking on sidewalks. This is a common occurrence in Sun City and greatly affects pedestrians, especially those that use assistive devices such as walkers or wheelchairs. Driving around Sun City you can see RVs overreaching the driveway into the sidewalks, cars parked up and over the rounded curbs and even wrong way parked cars taking up half the sidewalk. Stay tuned and contact your legislator to voice your support or displeasure.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I don't see a fourth bill. Come on folks, I've said this at least 5 times on this forum. When you retired and moved to Sun City there was no guarantee that prices would never go up for anything for those who are retired. The CCR's also did not say that when you move here you will never experience any price increases in anything. If you can't handle a 32 dollar increase for a year, how do you expect to handle the increase APS is asking for, or the increase in EPCOR waste water rates. These 2 increases are pretty much cast in stone, yet I see no one complaining about these coming increases.
Not trying to put words in aggies mouth SCR, but if memory serves me, her opposition to the Highway Safety Fee was our governor has constantly said "no new taxes." When this one came along his thinking was something akin to it not being a new tax but simply a fee increase...or some jumbled crap like that.
There are actually two more bills that are of interest but not so Sun City specific: SB1237 I will just give the basic description of the bill and note that the initial fiscal impact is $43,500,000. "Exempts uniformed service members' retired pension benefits from gross income calculation for Arizona state income tax purposes." HB2651 This has an effect on condo owners and those HOAs that fall under Title 33. Again just the description: "Allows a unit owner's association and a planned community association (Association) to impose monetary penalties for undisclosed rental information." As far as the $32 Highway Safety (not a tax) Fee, in addition to Governor Dooshey's pledge for no new taxes, the fact that the "fee" was almost double the amount given to the legislature after passing, an open-ended mechanism for the fee to be increased by any amount annually, and applying to all vehicles registered in Arizona, this "fee" to fund Arizona DPS is unfairly put on the shoulders of Arizona registered owners. The funding of the DPS should be shared equally by all those using Arizona roadways and the most sensible way would be an increase in the gas tax. Just look at all the out of state registered vehicles on our roads. How many of your neighbors store their home-state registered vehicles in AZ and drive them when they come down here for the winter? How many rental cars registered out of state drive hundreds of miles in AZ yet aren't charged this fee? Even motorcycles and golf carts are charged a fee. An Arizona registered owner that drives within Sun City for maybe 40 non-highway miles a month for basic necessities will pay $32 yet an out of state registered owner driving hundreds of miles pays nothing. This is my objection not the $32 amount.
Well I am back again after doing my 2019 taxes, watching my refund decline even though my income was less and taxes were higher. As usual I have an opinion on everything whether you want to hear it or not. Lets start with HB 2474 regarding panhandlers on medians. Despite SCHOA and our rep, Food Truck Kevin, this Bill is ripe for a legal challenge and possibly lose in court. The Supreme Court recently declined to hear a case, Martin v. City of Boise, Idaho. At issue was a city law from early last century making it illegal to sleep on the city streets. You would be subject to a ticket and fine even if you had no place else to go. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it violated the Eighth Amendment regarding cruel and unusual punishment. Now what does panhandling and sleeping on the sidewalks have in common? They are both public ways. Panhandling is a freedom of speech issue and if fined for doing this could also be covered by the Eighth Amendment. I know of no car accidents or injuries in the fifteen years I have lived in Sun City as a result of panhandlers and I believe SCHOA has not provided empirical evidence to back up their threat to safety claim. This is simply a case of wanting “those people” to go elsewhere out of sight of the fine upstanding Sun City residents. Of course, if Sun City residents meet on a median by Fry’s, have long involved conversations, I highly doubt there will teeth nashing over this. Sorry SCHOA and Food Truck dude, the law doesn’t work that way. By the way, the homeless could sleep on the medians and we could not do anything about it. What a country. As for HB4742, repeal of highway safety fee. My question is what safety on the highways is this used for? If it is for better signage, warning systems of some sorts or stopping the epidemic of wrong way drivers here, what’s the compliant? If it goes into some political black hole, I am with you. It’s not the cost, but the use and I do not have enough information on this, but I would believe it falls in the Governor Dopey Balance the Budget Memorial Fund. As for parking on sidewalks, why not just rename Sun City the Paris, Florence or Rome of Arizona as they park on the sidewalks there. Finally, in honor of the upcoming Presidents Day, please buy a car, new flooring, mattress or have your bathroom redone in their memory.
