The Arizona House gave final approval Monday to a bill granting new tax breaks of $50 million over three years for insurance companies that invest in high technology companies.

Farmers and businessmen from Yuma said House Speaker Andy Tobin invited them to a meeting Thursday to discuss his proposed comprehensive long-term water plan for Arizona – but then he stood them up.

With the committee deadline to hear bills in their chamber of origin passed, the major work of weeding out bills is done. But like weeds, bills are never really dead, and can sprout back up at any time before the session ends.

House Speaker Andy Tobin is sailing ahead in his attempt to pass a comprehensive long-term water plan for the state, even in the face of a flood of opposition from rural cities, counties, ranchers, farmers and conservationists.

Tobin’s marquee water legislation, HB2338, headed for a vote in the House Water and Agriculture Committee on Feb. 19. But when opponents showed up en masse, the committee decided not to hold a vote.

By using a loophole in Proposition 108 that may allow her to sidestep the need to get a two-thirds vote for her Medicaid expansion plan, Gov. Jan Brewer would be putting an unprecedented amount of power in her AHCCCS director’s hands.

An Arizona House committee has given initial approval to bills cutting taxes by millions of dollars for companies that expand or invest in new startups and also includes a 2 percent tax deduction for the self-employed valued at $58 million a year.

A plan championed by Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin that would eliminate pensions for new elected officials and judges and replace them with 401(k) style retirement plans is set for its first hearing in the Arizona House Tuesday.

As Arizona’s population has expanded, the state’s water supply has been quickly dwindling and without action, the state will face shortfalls that could cripple its ability to grow or even endure.

The former Arizona director of a leading tea party group says he has scrapped plans to deliver Valentine’s Day cards that featured murderous dictators including Adolf Hitler to Republican lawmakers believed to oppose anti-union legislation.

Arizona’s Republican congressmen recently sent a joint letter to House Speaker Andy Tobin asking him to push forward legislation barring automatic deductions of union dues from public employees’ paychecks.