Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

The state health department is asking the Arizona Legislature to pass a law allowing it to lease parts of the state mental hospital and its 93-acre grounds to private providers.

Arizona Corporation Commissioner Andy Tobin wants to increase internet access in rural schools and libraries by adding to a small fee paid by customers on their phone bills.

The Goldwater Institute wants to make it easier for Arizonans to challenge licensing requirements that the conservative organization views as unnecessary or unduly burdensome and protectionist.

As the mad scramble to craft the state’s spending plan begins, policymakers are quickly realizing that they have precious little money – an estimated $24 million – to spend, and not nearly enough even for their highest priorities.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich named Dominic Draye to the post on Wednesday.

More than 4,000 licensed veterinarians in Arizona don’t have to participate in the state’s Controlled Substances Prescription Monitoring Program.

State officials said federal funding has helped jump start awareness campaigns and drug monitoring efforts to combat the prescription drug epidemic in six of Arizona’s 15 counties.

The financial fallout from repealing Obamacare without replacing it will make everything else Arizona’s policymakers have so far worried about look like small potatoes.

The Department of Economic Security has a $9 million shortfall in its child support division caused by repeated limits to TANF, according to a budget request it sent to the Governor’s Office. Without the backfill of funds, DES says its services, like finding child support scofflaws, could be hobbled.

Officials at the Department of Economic Security didn’t always follow agency policy or state law requiring human resources staffers review all firings of government workers.