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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Seventh Legislature, First Regular Session
VETOED
water improvements program; water hauling
Purpose
Modifies the requirements of a water improvement program by allowing persons to make gifts, grants or donations for the purpose of providing financial assistance to qualified owners of residential real property for water hauling for water delivery and adds acquiring or installing storage tanks for receiving and storing water delivered through water hauling to the list of projects that a recipient's grant must be used toward.
Background
A county board of supervisors (county BOS) may establish a program to allow persons to make gifts, grants or donations for the purpose of providing financial assistance to qualified owners of residential real property for making improvements to an existing drinking water well or providing for a water delivery system for the residence. The county BOS must establish an entity to operate the program, to establish criteria for grants and to award grants. The entity may be a county agency, department or division or may be a private, nonprofit corporation as determined by the county BOS. The program must: 1) limit grant recipients to persons who are low-income or fixed income owners of residential property; 2) develop application criteria and criteria for awarding grants; and 3) restrict a grant recipient's use of grant monies to deepening an existing drinking water well for the recipient's residence or to plumbing or replumbing the recipient's residence for a water delivery system (A.R.S. § 11-254.09).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Allows, for a water improvements program, persons to make gifts, grants or donations for the purpose of providing financial assistance to qualified owners of residential real property for providing water hauling for water delivery.
2. Adds acquiring or installing storage tanks for receiving and storing water delivered through water hauling to the list of projects that a recipient's grant must be used toward.
3. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Governor's Veto Message
The Governor indicates in her veto message that H.B. 2086 weakens rural groundwater protections when rural Arizonans have been asking the Legislature for years to institute meaningful rural groundwater management measures, and that she will not consider rural groundwater legislation outside of the context of ongoing negotiations for an alternative framework for rural groundwater management.
House Action Senate Action
NREW 1/28/25 DP 6-4-0-0 NR 3/4/25 DP 5-2-1
3rd Read 2/17/25 33-26-1 3rd Read 4/9/25 17-13-0
Vetoed by the Governor 4/15/2025
Prepared by Senate Research
April 16, 2025
SB/SN/slp