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

Rep. David Lujan refunded thousands of dollars in donations to his exploratory committee after deciding that he will run for attorney general under the clean elections system.

Voters may get a chance to rethink the massive expansion of AHCCCS they approved in 2000, a move that could strip thousands of low-income Arizonans of healthcare coverage and provide an infusion of cash for the deficit-wracked state.

One lesson the state can take away from the ongoing financial crisis is that the state needs to be better prepared to handle plummeting tax revenue in the future - and that may require a return to the past.

This year's budget problems might just become next year's nightmare. Lawmakers hacked $650 million from the state's deficit during the final two months of 2009, but the shortfall still tops $1.4 billion.

The Arizona House of Representatives held 382 floor votes during the 2009 regular session, which stretched into July as lawmakers struggled with the budget deficit. Rep. Rich Crandall, a Mesa Republican, didn't participate in 254 of them, nearly two-thirds of the total.

A table of all votes missed by legislators during the 2009 Regular Session.

It doesn't take a crystal ball to divine that the budget will be the dominant issue at the Capitol in 2010. But what about Gov. Jan Brewer's chances for re-election, the partisan split in the Legislature after the election and whether the Cardinals will return to the Super Bowl? Nobody really knows. But almost everyone has an opinion.

Gov. Jan Brewer had some strong words for lawmakers as she signed a bill to cut about $200 million from budget.

Next year, the Arizona Legislature will decide whether to eliminate payday lending in the state, which presents a dilemma for Republican lawmakers who will have to decide between their free-enterprise beliefs and a moral objection to the large fees on short-term loans.

Gov. Jan Brewer has outlined a handful of proposals aimed at easing the state’s budget crisis, but she offered few details on how the $1.4 billion deficit would be erased or how much money her proposals would save.