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

No matter what your position is on the broad issue of health reform, it seems obvious that the health care bill should help protect the innocent and the helpless. And that will require language that forbids the government from covering abortions or paying for them.

Well, at least one state legislator finally got it right. Sen. John Nelson, a Republican from Litchfield Park, commenting on coping with the state budget debacle, was quoted in the Arizona Capitol Times saying, "It's almost like playing poker and not playing with a full deck."

As the lead plaintiff in the suit (just denied) challenging the Arizona Corporation Commission's right to mandate that utilities generate 15 percent of their power from alternate energy sources, I must admit that I felt a little odd when I was sitting in the Arizona Public Service rate hearing a couple of weeks ago.

"Support Our Kids" and "Citizens for a Quality Education" have joined forces to educate voters about two very critical upcoming ballot measures. On Nov. 3, Washington Elementary School District (WESD) and Glendale Union High School District (GUHSD) residents will determine if their respective budget overrides will be continued.

This is an open letter to Sen. Pamela Gorman. You seem to have forgotten for whom you work. Please let me remind you, you work for the people of Arizona. I am a citizen of Arizona and a resident of the district you represent in the Arizona Senate. Therefore, as a voter from your district, you work for me.

Imagine you just lost your job. For too many these days, this is not an imaginary scenario. You're sitting at the kitchen table with a notepad, thinking about evaluating your savings, keeping up with the rent, canceling the cable television, gathering the grocery coupons out of the mail that you used to throw away. Suddenly, from the next room, you hear your daughter sneeze. That's when you remember - losing your job means your family will lose health insurance, too.

I'm unemployed, but I don't want to see the Legislature get rid of the state equalization property tax, even though it would lower my home's property taxes. Why? Because the state needs the money more than I do to offset a $3 billion deficit and keep government services running at least at a base level.

Thank you again for being the best source of news in Arizona. There has been scant mention of the three measures that will be on the 2010 ballot on or in any other venue. The Arizona Capitol Times is the best place to find out what is happening at the Legislature.

This tagline - Politics. Simplified. - sums up our new and improved Web site perfectly. If you want to know what's happening in Arizona politics, you go to the leader in Capitol news: the Arizona Capitol Times. And now, we've taken that mission a step farther by recreating our Web site. The inside track to Arizona politics is available 24/7 at www.azcapitoltimes.com.

The federal government's "Cash for Clunkers" program ran out of money in a matter of days. The program, which pays people to trade in perfectly serviceable automobiles so the government can turn the cars into scrap, was not expected to reach the costs that it did.