The Town Council heard a wrap-up report on the latest session of the Arizona State Legislature when it met on Tuesday, Sept. 7.

Jack Lunsford, a lobbyist retained by the Town of Fountain Hills, described the latest session as frustrating. He said there was poor communication and difficulty in getting access to legislators and staff.

Lunsford has been a legislative lobbyist for 40 years. He has previously assisted the town with air traffic flight path issues, and he is working with the International Dark Sky Discovery Center proposed for Fountain Hills.

Lunsford reported that at 171 days, this was the third longest session of the Arizona Legislature. There were 1,774 bills introduced with 473 passed and 446 signed by the governor. Twenty-eight bills were vetoed. To a large extent the vetoes were political leverage for the governor and some of those he later signed.

Of the new legislation, 24% has an impact on cities and towns.

Lunsford highlighted some of the bills affecting municipal governments. An income tax reduction is expected to have a negative impact on state shared revenues to communities.

One that can be particularly difficult for cities and towns allows legislators to allege actions by municipalities violate state law or the Arizona Constitution and call for an investigation by the Attorney General. The penalty is loss of state shared revenues. There is already suit against the Maricopa County and the City of Tucson faces a loss of $68 million related to such a lawsuit, according to Lunsford.

Several other items related to election law were addressed by the legislature and there were COVID-related laws, mostly restricting how local government can respond to the health emergency with vaccination or mask requirements.

He said the legislature took up the issue of street racing to crack down on those participating, even in a peripheral way. This is not a significant issue for Fountain Hills but has become a major problem in cities across the Valley.

There were also laws addressing tobacco and vaping materials and those regulating how personnel investigations in law enforcement agencies are handled. Of a dozen bills related to vaping materials, none passed, but Lunsford said they will likely return next session.

A bill of interest to the Town of Fountain Hills related to regulation of short-term rentals failed to get through the legislature this session. Lunsford explained there were two competing bills, one sponsored by the industry, which the town and many other entities opposed, and one sponsored by Representative John Kavanagh of Fountain Hills. The town supported the Kavanagh bill that returned some powers to regulate the rentals to the community through zoning tools.

Neither proposal passed.

According to Lunsford there are likely changes coming to the legislature. He said there are 24 current legislators who are running for another office in 2022.