Gun owners won’t be able to lock up their pieces at public places and events that ban weapons, some Arizonans will have to watch their use of leaf blowers and a 2006 self-defense law will not be retroactively applied.
Those decisions were among 34 bills Gov. Janet Napolitano either signed into law or vetoed on July 2. The bills all had been passed by the Legislature before the end of the session last month.
Among the most important pieces of legislation Napolitano acted on was a major environmental protection measure requiring businesses and residents in metro Phoenix and parts of Pinal and Yavapai counties to cut down on particulate air pollution.
The law will require those areas to pave roads and alleys and place new restrictions on leaf blowers.
The measure is an attempt to avoid federal sanctions for unhealthy levels of particulate air pollution. Arizona has until the end of the year to adopt a remedial plan, or face sanctions that could include a cutoff of federal highway dollars and restrictions on building projects.
“Clean air is not just a matter of making the sky more blue,” Napolitano said in a news release. “Our air quality has a big effect on the health and well-being of Arizonans. This legislation is an important step forward in cleaning up air pollution in our state.”
Gun bill vetoed
Among the five bills Napolitano vetoed was one that would have allowed people to take guns into public events and buildings if the operator doesn’t provide individually locked storage spaces for weapons.
Napolitano said she vetoed the bill because its amendments to a 2006 law were “premature.” She said that law, which requires operators banning weapons to provide storage places for them, has been successfully implemented so far.
Napolitano also vetoed a bill that would have imposed new state regulatory oversight of railroad projects in the state and a bill that would have made a 2006 self-defense law retroactive, requiring a number of cases to be retried.
“Any bill that would force the retrial of a serious criminals and force the victims of the crime to again relive their experience must be viewed with great skepticism,” Napolitano said in a statement.
The 2006 law requires prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a self-defense claim is unfounded. Before, defendants had to prove that they acted to protect themselves.
In all, Napolitano signed 29 bills into law. One is aimed at stopping cities and towns from luring businesses from other nearby municipalities by giving them large tax breaks.
“These tax breaks have gotten out of control and been offered to a host of businesses, many of whom were likely to locate in Arizona regardless of whether they were offered a tax incentive,” Napolitano said in a statement. “The use of tax incentives to pit Maricopa County towns and cities against each other is not in the interest of Arizona or its taxpayers.”
Napolitano also approved a bill that will increase income caps used to calculate workers’ compensation benefits, one that will toughen penalties for gang-related crimes, another aimed at reforming the state’s system of Clean Elections and one that protects work centers from lawsuits for not paying developmentally disabled workers the minimum wage.