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The final days of the first regular session of the 49th Legislature were punctuated by fits and starts over the passage of a budget deal Republican leaders reached with Gov. Jan Brewer, as lawmakers aborted one attempt after another to approve the package, finally doing so hours after the new fiscal year began.

As the last day of the 2009 fiscal year was winding down without a budget in place, political onlookers who have spent a few years at the Capitol started to wonder: Will the Senate stop the clock before midnight of June 30 to hide the fact that the new fiscal year has started?

Lawmakers approved two measures on the final days of this year's session that aim to allow gun owners to carry firearms in restaurants and bars and to store firearms in vehicles parked on private lots.

The final day of this year’s legislative session fit right in with the 169 that preceded it: Everything seemed to move at a snail’s pace and nothing – including drawing the session to a close – was done with any ...

Gov. Jan Brewer's office said it would make an announcement on whether the governor would sign or veto the budget bills transmitted to her this morning. If Brewer vetoes the bills it will lead to at least a partial shutdown of state government. The Arizona Department of Administration posted a notice on its Web site at 9:42 a.m. that the governor is reviewing the budget bills, and that all state employees should report to work as scheduled.

The Senate transmitted to the governor the 10 budget bills the Legislature had passed in early June, but missed the fiscal deadline by six hours. The Senate sent the bills to the governor’s desk shortly before 6 a.m. July 1, ...

Republican lawmakers have approved parts of a budget plan negotiated with the governor, but they did not consider a tax-increase component that may be the lynchpin of the deal.

The proposal for a flat individual income-tax rate is not going anywhere, one of its supporters in the Senate said.

The Senate Rules Committee finally approved a measure to allow voters to decide whether to increase the state sales tax by 1 cent.

Gov. Jan Brewer met with House Republican leadership and a revolving door of Democrats in a two-hour meeting this afternoon as she tried to find the votes needed to send a temporary sales-tax increase to the ballot in November.