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

The Senate Republicans’ $12.2 billion budget proposal hews closely to Gov. Doug Ducey’s $12.3 billion spending plan for Fiscal 2021.

While nearly half the $12.3 billion is going to K-12 education, the proposed spending plan by Gov. Doug Ducey also carves out dollars for some new and expanded programs and priorities.

As Gov. Doug Ducey welcomed in a new decade with his address to the joint session of the Legislature on January 13, it became clear that he left the Era of Good Feelings behind in 2019.

A prisoner whose life sentence without parole Gov. Doug Ducey commuted in November is still behind bars as investigators look into a 30-year-old child molestation accusation.

Gov. Doug Ducey plans to expand on a successful pilot program to help close the achievement gap in schools across Arizona, targeting low-income areas with lower-performing students.

The Arizona schools chief expects to have the same impact for the 2020 legislative session as last year, but she’s preparing for at least one education fight she considers as a distraction to the bigger picture.

In an effort to “chip away at the deep-rooted cronyism” and clean up government, Gov. Doug Ducey wants to put more members of the public on state regulatory boards and commissions instead of industry insiders.

Spending part of a one-time windfall to build new roads and bridges was a rare idea in Gov. Doug Ducey’s January 13 State of the State Address that won plaudits from both liberal and conservative lawmakers.

Gov. Doug Ducey’s announcement in his State of the State Address that he would be shutting down the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence astounded criminal justice advocates and the town itself.

House Minority Leader Charlene Fernandez has seen the full scope of Democratic legislative power, from the bad old days when Democrats had only 23 seats to the present day, when they’ve accumulated enough power that a single defection from the other side has huge implications.