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Barry Gartell retiring from Arizona News Service
Arizona News Service will lose a veteran member of its newsroom later this month when Barry Gartell, the editor of the Arizona Legislative Report, retires and moves to suburban Boston.
News Notes: Adams not pleased
House Speaker Kirk Adams said Governor Brewer “absolutely” broke the budget deal she had agreed to by vetoing the trailer bills. He said the deal was that he and Senate President Bob Burns would do everything possible to round up the 31 and 16 needed for the tax referral, but that she was responsible for filling in the gaps if the votes couldn’t all be wrangled by leadership.
News Notes: Meetings
After lunch, Brewer went to Adams’ office for more discussions. Burns joined them for a short time. As he left, he let it be known that his preference at this point is to transmit the June 4 budget without the trailers and let her deal with it.
News Notes: Dominoes
The snafu in the Senate had repercussions in the House where its Approps Committee was scheduled to hear the tax related measures: two related to the referral of the sales tax increase and one dealing with the flat-rate income tax.
News Notes: Budget deal close
Insiders told our reporter today that a budget deal with Brewer is "very close." The source would not discuss details of any potential compromises, but said that another three-party session is planned for today.
News Notes: Nutri-sweet for a tax hike
During this morning's breakfast forum (June 23), Rep. John Kavanagh said there may be enough GOP support in the Legislature to refer Brewer's temporary sales tax hike to the ballot if fiscal conservatives get something to "sweeten the deal" in return.
News Notes: Budget
According to one insider, the three-party budget negotiations are going decidedly the Legislature’s way. In most of the specific items that have been discussed, our source said, the negotiated numbers look much closer to the Adams-Burns budget than to her proposal.
News Notes: Budgeteering
Capitol chatter continues to be that a budget deal is “close,” though none of the principals are talking about which issues have been agreed to and what compromises have been... […]
News Notes: Negotiation gap closing
The two sides continue to inch closer to an agreement, sources within the majority caucuses told our reporter today. K-12 and VLT funding are still the major stumbling block(s). Otherwise,... […]
News Notes: Strategizing
Brewer told the press June 16 that the Legislature is essentially trying to “trick” her by waiting until the end of the fiscal year and trying to force her to either sign an unacceptable budget or force a government shutdown.
Supreme Court upholds redistricting
The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled the state's Independent Redistricting Commission acted properly in crafting legislative district boundaries that have been in use since 2002.
