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

The anemic fundraising for Sen. Steve Smith’s build-your-own-border-fence campaign is getting some help from a professional public relations firm.

Legislative leaders are pushing ahead with their budget proposal after efforts to get the governor involved have failed.

But in going ahead, lawmakers risk alienating Gov. Jan Brewer, who has a competing budget plan.

The move could also spur the sides to begin meeting on the state’s spending plan.

The Goldwater Institute looked to a group of community organizers and Democratic operatives for inspiration for its latest school choice idea.

The institute helped draft and is advocating for SB1204, which would allow parents of students attending failing schools to close down the school, convert it to a charter school or remove the principal.

Conservative Republicans who dominate the Legislature say the timing is right to overhaul Arizona’s civil justice system, arguing the changes are needed to improve the state’s business climate.

But so far, their success has been mixed.

The Arizona Legislature filed an amicus brief Monday with the U.S. Supreme Court in the appeal of a ruling that blocked enforcement of SB1070, the state’s immigration enforcement law.

A House committee approved Gov. Jan Brewer’s vaunted personnel plan, giving the bill its first step toward passage, despite the warnings of public sector unions and government workers who spent hours urging lawmakers not to eliminate their civil service protections.

A House panel endorsed a bill Thursday that would put the brakes on many of the special license plates that allow Arizonans to display support for various causes.

A proposal to outlaw automatic salary deductions for public union dues – unless workers expressly authorize them annually – survived a vigorous Senate debate on Thursday, and was passed by a vote of 19-11.

The bill, championed by Senate Majority Leader Andy Biggs, is headed for the House for further action, but other measures that would fundamentally weaken public unions in Arizona have yet to be calendared for a debate.

A state House committee has shot down a proposal giving voters the option to change recall elections in a way that could make it more difficult to vote an incumbent out of office.

A state House committee is balking at a proposal to allowing Arizona governments and businesses to publish notices online as an alternative to having them printed in a newspaper.