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

Arizona's residents face a higher tax bill this year as time is all but out to repeal a property tax that has been suspended for the last three years. Without legislative action and the governor's signature, the state equalization property tax is set to come back this year.

On a rack in Steve Pierce’s office sits a cap that declares, “Operation Chaos.” Pierce, a freshman senator from Prescott, wore it while the Legislature passed a set of budget bills in June.

The Arizona Supreme Court on Aug. 13 delivered a detailed explanation of a decision it reached in June regarding an acrimonious state budget dispute between Gov. Jan Brewer and Republican lawmakers.

The Arizona Senate has revived a measure that contains a provision for a sales tax increase, even though some lawmakers have called it a "dead horse." Senate President Bob Burns indicated lawmakers would continue to work to pass the ballot referral.

House Democrats today named eight members, including three Republicans, to serve on their newly formed Task Force on Private School Tuition Tax Credits program. Billed as a bipartisan panel, Democrats announced that the task force will be chaired by Rep. David Schapira, a Democrat from Tempe, with Tom Chabin, a Democrat from Flagstaff, named vice chair.

Arizonans may no longer be able to take pride that things here haven’t gotten as bad as in California. State Treasurer Dean Martin said Arizona may need to start issuing IOUs if the Legislature and Gov. Jan Brewer fail to approve a budget by Aug. 17.

A freshman lawmaker from Prescott has been elected as permanent majority whip in the Senate. "It's an honor to be able to able to help," said Sen. Steve Pierce. Pierce's election to the post did not come as a surprise.

***UPDATED AT 8:45 P.M.*** After about seven months of trying, Republican leaders arrived at the Capitol on Aug. 12 with hopes that they had finally corralled enough votes in the Senate, including the support of a Democrat, to pass a budget for fiscal year 2010. But all that evaporated when a senator whose support Republicans were counting on was absent from the floor.

The Senate has amended one of the budget bills to remove the provision that called for a ballot referral for the suspension of Proposition 105.

Following media reports that highlighted problems with the state’s school-tuition organizations, Democrats in the Arizona House have called for state and federal authorities to investigate potential abuses of the school-choice option.