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

Gov. Doug Ducey would get much of what he asked for as part of an $11.8 billion budget deal struck with Republican legislative leaders, including savings of more than a billion dollars.

Today’s the day lawmakers in both the House and the Senate hope to introduce budget proposals, but don’t hold your breath for sine die just yet.

Republican leaders who control the majority in the Arizona Legislature said Sunday they've reached a deal with GOP Gov. Doug Ducey on a spending plan for the budget year that begins July 1.

Some Arizona teenagers learned a real-world lesson at the Legislature in recent years – your public policy ideas will go nowhere if they conflict with the Republican majority.

House and Senate Republicans plan to introduce their budget bills Monday, Senate President Karen Fann and House Speaker Rusty Bowers said.

The preliminary approval of SB 1147 on a voice vote came after Rep. John Allen, R-Scottsdale, who is working with the vaping industry, agreed to some last-minute changes designed to blunt opposition.

Having burned through $28 million in a pair of losing political battles in Arizona last year, California billionaire Tom Steyer is now prepared to pump some more cash into the state.

State lawmakers tried to expand protections for firefighters two years ago, but the law does not seem to be working as expected.

In 2017, the Legislature passed a bill to expand the list of cancers that are legally presumed to be a result of firefighters’ workplace conditions. HB2161 sailed out of both chambers with nearly unanimous support from lawmakers who sought to protect firefighters across Arizona from the financial burden of diseases such as leukemia, melanoma and testicular cancer, among others.

Democratic representatives took their budget pitch public on Wednesday morning in an effort to appeal to Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, while state senators in the minority party are keeping their plans close to the vest.