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

Let’s drop the attempts to penalize people over 50 years of age for being older or sicker. It’s not fair to charge them disproportionately more for coverage just because of their age. And it’s not fair – or right – to scale back or eliminate the tax credits and subsidies that help low-income older Americans afford health insurance.

Moving forward, we hope to see states take a leadership role in reforming our nation’s health care. Bipartisan efforts by the nation’s governors give us hope that the lessons states have learned regarding Medicaid can be applied to the national debate.

Many political pundits have suggested that after last week’s ill-fated vote, the health care debate in the United States is over. We do not believe that this is the case.

After spending 25 years in law enforcement as a sheriff’s deputy, a sergeant, and a federal security adviser, reading the new American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) report on Arizona drug sentences brought some painful memories back.

The facts are that the individual insurance market, where about 7 percent of Americans get their health insurance, is not healthy.

Arizona business leaders speak out on education and how best to prepare the nation's youth.

Overall, the agreement represents incremental progress – but even more significant may be the much-needed spark it provides to re-energize drought contingency discussions within Arizona and across the entire Colorado River Basin.

Ultimately, we believe the best way forward is comprehensive immigration reform that provides permanent legal status and a path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the shadows today.

Pinal County is asking voters this November to approve a half-cent sales tax to fund regional transportation projects. Notwithstanding the failure to advance legislation that would allow the county to levy the tax at varying rates among different classifications, the county is proceeding with ballot language to do just that.

One in five Arizona eighth-graders is not included in state reported figures of the AzMERIT math exam, a required test for all public school students – district and charter, according to newly released data analysis by the Center for Student Achievement.