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Watered down ‘birther’ bill advances
Legislation requiring presidential candidates to submit proof of citizenship before appearing on the Arizona ballot is advancing in the Senate, though it has been stripped of its most controversial provision and has been substantially tweaked since the original version died in committee in February.
The risks of defiance: What will GOP senators’ ‘no’ votes on immigration bills cost them?
Advocates of stricter state-level immigration laws hinted at dire political repercussions for the 12 Republicans who voted against some or all of five controversial immigration measures on March 17.
Adams and Yarbrough find compromise on rival pension reform bills
A compromise between House Speaker Kirk Adams and Sen. Steve Yarbrough and their respective pension reform plans passed the House Employment and Regulatory Affairs committee meeting this week.
Berch pushes for probate reform and merit selection in speech to Legislature
Arizona’s chief Supreme Court justice, Rebecca White Berch, urged a joint session of the Legislature March 21 to reform probate court and not change the way the state chooses its judges.
Census strengthens GOP’s grip: As power shifts, Phoenix and Dems look like losers in Legislature
If Arizona Democrats thought nothing could be worse than the 2010 election results, they might want to hold their collective breath as the Independent Redistricting Commission gets to work.
Senate budget: A bargaining chip?
Despite all the raw emotions it stirred and all the opposition it encountered, the Senate’s budget-slashing and gimmicks-busting proposal isn’t going to be state’s final spending plan.
Its most contentious aspects, more likely than not, will be softened and its most ragged edges smoothed out before it wins support in the House of Representatives and with Gov. Jan Brewer.
Senate Republicans finally pass budget
In a move that potentially sets the stage for a showdown with Gov. Jan Brewer, the Senate late Wednesday passed a budget proposal that cuts more than what the governor called for in January and rejects many of her accounting maneuvers to erase the fiscal deficit.
Brewer’s new plan: freeze AHCCCS without the cuts
Gov. Jan Brewer changed tracks on her plans to overhaul the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, announcing a new plan that would freeze enrollment for childless adults but wouldn’t impose the massive cuts she’d long advocated.
Bundgaard is out, Biggs is in
Sen. Andy Biggs, an eloquent speaker and conservative legislator from Gilbert, emerged as the new majority leader following a closed-door meeting this afternoon.
Critics say partisan fights take new shape in ‘independent’ redistricting
Placing the “I” word in front of Redistricting Commission doesn’t mean it’s really independent.
Now that the commission is fully constituted, they'll soon begin redrawing the state's legislative and congressional lines. At stake is the state's political landscape for the next ten years. And while most everyone agrees on the gravity of task, disagreements abound on just how "inde[...]
Time out for Antenori’s ‘not-a-TIF’ bill
Sen. Frank Antenori is going to bat for a proposal that could help cities retain spring training baseball and spur economic development, but to get it through the Legislature he must overcome the skepticism of a powerful committee chairman, the ghosts of a much-maligned project in Tucson and the state’s historic hostility toward tax increment financing.
IRC budget based on experience and guesswork
The last statement James Huntwork made as a member of the first Independent Redistricting Commission in his last meeting in June 2009 was that the next IRC would need “a lot of money.”
How much money the newly seated IRC will need is a mystery.
But the thinking of those involved with the first one is that the legal disputes, which consumed so much money last time, will be[...]
