Railroad bill among 22 bills governor vetoed

State utility regulators won't get any chance to try to alter plans by railroads to expand their operations in Arizona.

Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed legislation Monday which would have allowed the Arizona Corporation Commission to review any efforts by railroads to construct new rail yards on land they acquire by eminent domain or by auction from the state. The agency also would have been able to force railroads to study the impacts their plans would have and consider alternate sites.

Other bills vetoed by Napolitano on Monday include:

-requiring government agencies to provide individual storage for weapons brought by people to government buildings;

-retroactively "clarifying" a year-old change in self-defense laws to make it easier for some people facing murder charges to get acquitted;

-extending the time before an election to fill congressional vacancies;

-having the state Board of Education decide when credits can be transferred between charter and regular public schools.

The action on Monday - the last day she had to review bills from this legislative session - brings her veto total to 22. She also signed 295 measures and let two others become law without her signature.

The railroad bill is a direct response to efforts by Union Pacific to build a 6-mile-long switching yard near Picacho Peak on land it wants to acquire from the state. Foes have raised questions about everything from visual appearance to the possibility of train cars polluting the underground water supply.

Union Pacific also wants to double the entire length of its main line through Arizona, and, at least at one point, was considering a new spur through Yuma to the Mexican border.

The measure, while giving the commission power to force studies, would not have allowed the regulators to force the railroads to abandon their plans or even move them elsewhere. But Rep. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, said he believes the pressures brought by a public hearing process would force railroads to rethink unpopular decisions.

The governor said the measure is illegal.

"While railroads must use their eminent domain authority responsibly, the fact remains that railroads are regulated primary, if not exclusively, at the federal level," she wrote.