It looks like Buz Mills just made a huge campaign contribution to his opponents. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on May 21 upheld the matching funds provision of Arizona’s Clean Elections system, a ruling that will likely inject millions of dollars into the governor’s race and other high-profile campaigns.

The executive tower was reopened about one hour after a suspicious envelope filled with white powder prompted a lockdown of the building.

Legislative leaders say the governor exceeded her constitutional authority in some of her line-item vetoes of budget bills this month, but they decided against taking the matter to court.

Gov. Jan Brewer said she “absolutely” stands by her action, adding she didn’t give much thought to the lawmakers’ statement that she doesn’t have authority to line-item veto items that don’t have to do with appropriations.

Legislative Republicans may have to reconcile themselves to at least one year of the state equalization property tax. It would be theoretically possible to repeal the tax retroactively during the next legislative session, so that property owners would be reimbursed for the taxes already paid under the equalization rate. But any lawmaker hoping to do so can expect fierce opposition from county treasurers.

President Obama on Sept. 9 offered what could be his administration’s last direct attempt to convince Americans to rally around his health care plan, offering an outline Democrats found encouraging. But even as Democrats hope for a new wind on health care, Republicans were largely unswayed, with Arizona Rep. Trent Franks calling the address “divorced from reality completely.”

The governor’s actions on the state budget drew jeers from both Republicans and Democrats, but for wildly different reasons. House Speaker Kirk Adams and Senate President Bob Burns, both Republicans, said Gov. Jan Brewer increased state spending by more than $350 million with her line-item-vetoes of cuts to K-12 education and the Department of Economic Security, which provides benefits for Arizona’s poor.

Blaming “extremists” from both parties for holding up the budget process and threatening the state with bankruptcy, Gov. Jan Brewer on Sept. 4 signed large swaths of the budget that she said will help the state “weather the storm” until the next legislative session. But she vetoed parts of the main spending bill, including $300 million in cuts to K-12 schools and DES. She also vetoed the bill that included the equalization property tax.

Bipartisan budget talks took place Sept. 1 – but only between Senate leaders and the governor.

Last-ditch budget negotiations between Republicans and Democrats appear to have fallen apart, which makes it unlikely Gov. Jan Brewer will see her sales-tax-increase proposal on a ballot any time soon.

The one budget bill that garnered a signature from Gov. Jan Brewer would fundamentally change the way the state Land Department is funded. Brewer on Aug. 21 signed H2014, which creates a self-funding mechanism for the Land Department and addresses issues at the Parks Department, the Department of Agriculture and other agencies.