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

The Senate is poised to pass a $9.13 billion fiscal 2015 budget on Thursday, and the House may follow suit next week when it begins its own debate on a plan expected to mirror the one proposed by Senate President Andy Biggs. Yet a question remains, one that Sen. Steve Pierce asked in the Senate’s GOP caucus meeting on Wednesday afternoon: “Do we really expect this to be signed by the governor?”

The Arizona Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a $9.13 billion budget package fiscal 2014-2015 on Tuesday afternoon, with all votes breaking on party lines as the chamber’s Republican majority took charge.

For-profit universities in Arizona said Monday that proposed federal regulations that would make them report average student debt levels, loan default rates and other “key outcomes” are unfair and may be based on flawed data.

Arizona Public Service insists it is not involved in the dispute over the taxation of leased residential solar panels, but that’s not what a Republican legislative leader says.

The Arizona State Hospital is finally meeting federal standards and will not lose its certification -- and millions in federal dollars.

The Arizona House approves bill criminalizing “revenge porn.”

Students with poor grades may have to buckle down on their studies before they can play in the football game or dance on the cheerleading team if a bill approved by the House on March 4 becomes law.

State lawmakers hope to use fees paid by medical marijuana users and dispensaries to convince everyone else not to inhale.

Testifying in the campaign finance case against him, Attorney General Tom Horne emphatically and repeatedly denied that he illegally coordinated with an independent expenditure campaign.

A long-awaited bill by Sen. Michele Reagan aims to force independent expenditure campaigns to disclose the source of the anonymous “dark money” that has played an increasingly large role in Arizona’s elections.