Do kids need more recess? Should photo radar be banned? Is 18 years old too young to smoke? You may be surprised at some of the proposed laws this year in Arizona.
Here are 19 of the most interesting bills we found:
HB2006 – Minors can’t get married: Prohibits people under 18 from marrying. (SB1139 would allow emancipated minors who are at least 16 to marry as well.)
SB1083 – Kids need more recess: This bill would require elementary schools to provide two recesses a day to students through fifth grade.
HB2007 – Wearing a mask is a crime?: Wearing a disguise to a public event, including a civil protest a political event, in order to obscure your identity or avoid detection, would be a crime. (SB1033 would increase the penalty for rioters wearing masks.)
SB1010 – 21 years old to smoke: This would raise the minimum tobacco use age from 18 to 21, just like drinking.
HB2011 – Unlicensed blowouts: This would allow people to wash, blow dry and style hair without needing a cosmetology license. It would make it easier to hire people at popular dry bars.
SB1040– Muzzling fake service dogs: This bill would make it illegal to fraudulently misrepresent an animal as a “service animal” in a public place. It would be punishable by a $250 fine.
SB1116– No dogs behind the wheel: This bill would prohibit drivers from having an animal on their lap in the car, including dogs, cats, reptiles, birds and amphibians. It would be punishable by a $100 fine.
HB2084 – Kids can't tan: This would require tanning salons to ID customers. No minors would be allowed to use a tanning bed.
HB2222 – Free tampons for prisoners: This would require the Arizona Department of Corrections to provide unlimited feminine hygiene products to inmates free of charge.
SB1036– Stop lunch shaming: This would put rules on schools to ensure children would not be embarrassed if their parents failed to pay up on lunch accounts. The student would still be served the same lunch as the other students.
HB2371 – Food truck regulations: This would allow cities and counties to regulate food trucks in a variety of ways including making a minimum distance that they could park from existing restaurants.
HB2053 – Making sextortion illegal: This would make it a crime for people to extort sex acts from someone by threatening them.
HB2208 – Trying to ban photo radar…again: This would again try to ban photo radar in every city and town in Arizona. (SB1110 would require police review of photo radar tickets.)
SB1007 and SB1015 – Motorcyclists can split lanes: Both of these bills would allow motorcycle riders to split lanes.
SB1091 and SB1145 – Making Bitcoin taxable: These bills would consider capital gains from Bitcoin and similar virtual currency investments to be taxable income in Arizona. You could also pay your Arizona taxes in Bitcoin.
SB1032 – No pot billboards: This bill would prohibit medical marijuana companies from outdoor advertising.
SB1016 – You have to call 911: This bill would require anyone who witnesses another person in a life-threatening emergency to report it to authorities.