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.

One of the most prominent conservative media outlets in the United States is taking Gov. Jan Brewer to task for her call to expand her state’s Medicaid program in accordance with the Affordable Care Act, accusing her of abandoning her principles and pursuing a course of action that will harm both Arizona and the United States.

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.

Here’s an early gift from Santa: Collections in Arizona grew by 8 percent last month compared to the year before.

Economists predicted today that Arizona will fully recover from the recent recession in about three years.

Gov. Jan Brewer won’t decide on Friday whether to establish a state-run health insurance exchange after U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today extended the deadline to Dec. 14.

The number of Arizona homes in some stage of the foreclosure process dropped again in October compared to a year ago, and homes actually repossessed by banks also dipped.

Arizona’s economy would benefit if elected officials followed the lead of states including Utah and New Mexico that have established government-supported programs promoting venture capital investment, two business groups contend.

The portion of Arizonans living in poverty hit 19 percent last year, the sixth-highest rate in the nation, according to new data from the Census Bureau.