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

Arizona lawmakers pulled an all-nighter and worked well past sunrise Saturday morning to approve a $9.1 billion budget proposal after Republican leadership spent the day rounding up the votes to get it across the finish line.

Arizona legislators advanced a budget deal struck by Senate and House leaders and Gov. Doug Ducey, but the bills won’t move any further unless GOP leadership can change the minds of more than a dozen rank-and-file members opposed to the spending plan.

Republican leaders in the Legislature plan quick action on a budget deal hammered out with Gov. Doug Ducey.

In their attempt to balance Arizona’s budget, Gov. Doug Ducey and Republican lawmakers have proposed some difficult and controversial decisions.

When Gov. Doug Ducey released his budget proposal for the upcoming year, Republican Rep. Paul Boyer of Phoenix had only one question.

On the campaign trail last year, Gov. Doug Ducey pledged that if elected, he would submit tax-cutting legislation each year he was in office, a vow he could begin to fulfill through his plan to eliminate a “hidden tax increase” by pegging Arizona’s income tax rates to inflation.

Gov. Doug Ducey’s first executive budget slashed higher education funding and some Arizona Commerce Authority programs, but some groups came out ahead in the recommendation.

People scoffed when Senate President Andy Biggs said he wanted a 65-day legislative session in 2015. That may be overly optimistic, but if the first two weeks of the session are indicative of how he, his fellow Republican lawmakers and new Gov. Doug Ducey are getting along in budget negotiations, the session and the budget may be headed toward relatively swift resolutions.

Gov. Doug Ducey proposed a combination of one-time solutions and hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts, including big hits to universities and Medicaid providers, while Arizona waits for the economy recover enough for its budget to be structurally balanced by fiscal year 2017.

As Gov. Doug Ducey prepares to unveil his first executive budget proposal, he and Republican legislative leaders stood together to show a united front as they tackle Arizona’s fiscal crisis.