The workload appears to be light this week in the Arizona House of Representatives, as all but a handful of committees have finished hearing bills and have turned attention to the budget.

Only four of the House's 15 committees will be meeting this week to consider legislation, while members of the Appropriations Committee will be putting in overtime, with meetings scheduled for three days.

The House Appropriations Committee will meet jointly with its Senate counterpart at 2 p.m. Tuesday (March 10) to discuss the budgets of the Department of Public Safety, Game and Fish, the Automobile Theft Authority, the Criminal Justice Commission, the State Retirement System, the Commission on the Arts and the Department of Financial Institutions.

House Appropriations has scheduled its own meeting at 3 p.m. Tuesday to discuss the budgets of the departments of Revenue and Transportation, the Board for Charter Schools and the Government Information and Technology Agency.

The Appropriations committees will meet jointly again at 2 p.m. Thursday (March 12) to hear budget presentations from a dozen state agencies, including the Department of Corrections, the Arizona Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, Superior Court and the Department of Health Services.