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

The House and Senate adjourned the 2017 legislative session for good at sunset Wednesday, capping a day that saw lawmakers expand tax breaks for businesses and benefits for poor Arizona families.

A deal struck Tuesday on a bill to consolidate election dates likely allows the Legislature to avoid a flurry of late night voting on Thursday.

The lobbying arm of Arizona’s school boards is threatening to sue over a proposed amendment that would require 50 percent of inflationary funding increases for K-12 education to be used for teacher pay raises.

The Arizona House and Senate may delay adjourning the session until next week, as the Legislature waits for Republican Sen. John Kavanagh to return from a trip to Louisiana to provide a crucial vote for a pair of bills.

The state House voted 41-19 Monday to guarantee free speech to student journalists despite claims it will give "children'' more rights than their professional adult counterparts enjoy.

Arizona is on the verge of authorizing its farmers to start growing hemp. But how quickly fields of the relative of the better-known marijuana plant will start springing up around the state remains unclear.

While the big ticket and politically charged budget items get most of the attention, there are hundreds of items that get little to no fanfare. Following are a few of those items.

Two former politicians are moving to overturn the decision by the Republican-controlled legislature to make it more difficult for voters to propose their own laws.

The proposed state budget strips the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office of $1.6 million in anti-gang and illegal immigration funding, and Republican Sen. John Kavanagh took no issue saying it was because of the Democratic sheriff’s immigration policies.

Republican legislative leaders are using a provision buried in the state budget in their latest attempt to defund Planned Parenthood.