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Rural hospitals facing serious impact from AHCCCS budget cuts
With a few strokes of her pen, Gov. Jan Brewer approved massive cuts to health care funding and money the state gives to hospitals that treat large numbers of the poor and uninsured.
While the move will be felt statewide, its most acute effect could be in the rural reaches of the state.
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Napolitano puts brakes on virtual fence funds
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said March 16 that she will freeze funds for expanding the virtual fence that originally was supposed to monitor most of the 2,000-mile southern U.S. border by 2011 but now covers only a portion of Arizona’s boundary with Mexico.
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First Things First takes hit in final act of special session
Arizona lawmakers wrapped up their seventh special session March 16 but not before stripping a voter-approved program aimed at expanding education and health services for children.
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Power line cost pits lawmakers vs. ACC
The Arizona Corporation Commission decided three years ago that homebuilders should pay the cost of extending power lines to new houses, but some lawmakers now want to go back to the way things used to be and force utility companies to foot the bill.
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Big Spenders: Lobbying costs rise as revenues drop
Local governments in Arizona fought off budget crises last year by reducing services, raising taxes and, in many cases, spending more money on lobbying services.
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AZ trust fund for jobless benefits running dry
The state trust fund that pays for jobless benefits is expected to run dry this week. That will force Arizona to borrow money from the federal government until unemployment subsides.
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Officials: Budget cuts will increase boating dangers
The latest plan to address the state’s budget deficit would sweep a fund that helps law enforcement patrol Arizona’s waterways, something that two local officials say would endanger boaters.
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New deal would save Juvenile Corrections for now
Republican leaders and Gov. Jan Brewer have struck a deal that will allow the Department of Juvenile Corrections to remain in place for the next year instead of shuttering the agency and shifting responsibility to counties.
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Plan unveiled for juvenile corrections
The Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections would close in March 2011 under the Legislature’s plan to shift the cost of incarcerating juveniles to counties.
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E-fighting fraud: With fewer auditors, ADRE is tracking firms with technology
If necessity is the mother of invention, a slumping economy fathered a state agency’s need to implement electronic audits of property management companies amid growing concerns of fraud.
