Gov. Jan Brewer signed an emergency appropriations bill today that provides $4.4 million for Child Protective Services to hire new staff, and lawmakers sent another bill to her desk to continue funding the Independent Redistricting Commission as it heads to trial in federal court.

Before lawmakers decide what kind of discretionary spending they want added in the fiscal 2014 budget, Rep. John Kavanagh said they have to make a choice about whose revenue projections they’re going to believe.

After receiving a briefing on the governor’s $8.9 billion budget proposal, Republican leaders said they want a final spending plan that hews to the conservative approach they have adopted during the past few years.

The Governor’s Office unveiled an $8.9 billion budget plan today for fiscal year 2014, which included $317 million in new spending.

“We’re finally comfortable using red, so that should tell you something about the state budget,” John Arnold, director of the governor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Budgeting, joked about the bright red color of the budget books distributed to the media at a press briefing today.

Gov. Jan Brewer is set to release a proposed state budget containing the spending priorities she hopes the Legislature adopts for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

While Democrats gained seats following last year’s elections, Republicans are still likely to craft the state budget on their own rather than directly negotiate with the minority.

As Gov. Jan Brewer gears up to push her Medicaid plan through the Legislature, she’s rallying business and health care leaders in support of the proposed AHCCCS expansion.

With a fiscal crisis that forced billions of dollars in state government cuts mainly over, the Arizona Legislature enters its 2013 session Monday with a budget surplus but little appetite among majority Republicans to loosen the purse strings.

The state has socked away about $450 million in a rainy day fund and has more than $1 billion in total surplus going into the budget year that begins July 1.

Gov. Jan Brewer plans Monday to lay out her vision and priorities for Arizona in her annual State of the State address.

Brewer’s speech on the opening day of the legislative session will be her fourth.

As politicians point fingers in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook slaughter, a school security expert says politicians at all levels had a hand in the disappearance of school security.