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Senate President Bob Burns has replaced a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee in another attempt to get the votes to pass a budget deal with the governor at the committee level.

Prescott Republican Sen. Steve Pierce has endorsed the repeal of S1271, a measure he shepherded through the Legislature in what he describes as an effort to provide some shelter to community banks that have been pummeled by waves of foreclosures.

If Congress moves on a proposed legislation to ban text messaging while driving nationwide, it may shift support for the issue at the Arizona Legislature. Sen. Al Melvin, a Tucson Republican who was one of two lawmakers to introduce bills ...

Republican leaders and Gov. Jan Brewer may have reached a tentative budget agreement, but they don’t have the votes to get it out of the Legislature.

Gov. Jan Brewer and House Speaker Kirk Adams announced that they and Senate President Bob Burns have reached a tentative budget deal, which they hope will be approved in the Legislature by the end of the night.

With the state facing a $3 billion deficit, Senate Republicans realized they needed a strong leader to unite the caucus behind a budget plan and get the governor to sign it. From among themselves, they chose Bob Burns.

Democrats have accused Republicans of breaking off budget negotiations June 28 and breaking a promise that they wouldn’t use the bipartisan talks to leverage a deal with the governor.

Legislative leadership met Tuesday (July 28) morning with Gov. Jan Brewer as talks continued over a possible budget deal that would include a ballot referral for the governor's temporary sales tax increase.

UPDATE - Sen. Steve Pierce told the Arizona Capitol Times that his foreclosure bill will have to be fixed, either in special session or next year when the Legislature begins the regular session. Pierce and stakeholders met this afternoon (July 28) to discuss changes to the legislation.

It’s been three weeks since lawmakers were called into a special legislative session to patch a massive hole in the budget, but there are finally signs that negotiations with Democrats may be bearing some fruit.