Facing a billion-dollar deficit on the day he takes office, Arizona Governor-elect Doug Ducey formed a budget study committee to help him figure out the problem prior to his inauguration, and several key members of his predecessor’s administration are lending a hand.

The state’s largest private hospitals have made their qualms known about a proposed $935 million in tax-funded financing for the county health system, but they aren’t lining up with groups opposed to it.

In a recent Arizona Capitol Times commentary, advocates peddled support for Proposition 480, the county hospital bond proposal. It was revealing that the advocates left out the most important piece of information about the proposal; the price tag. This wasn’t an oversight but rather a clear recognition that the overwhelming cost of the proposal is impossible to justify.

Construction firms and groups closely associated with the county’s public hospital contributed nearly 80 percent of the $910,000 raised for a campaign to convince voters to approve financing for a new medical center and revamped health system.

Opposition to a nearly $1 billion bond proposal to build a new public hospital and modernize the county’s health system is beginning to take shape, with critics questioning why the county even needs a safety-net hospital. The Maricopa Integrated Health ...

The Arizona Tax Research Association would like to correct an important error in the Arizona Capitol Times (July 11). The National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers union in the nation, ranks Arizona 29th for school year 2012-13 in average salaries for K-12 “public school teachers.” The Capitol Times article incorrectly reported Arizona at 42nd.

Crandell’s overhaul of school finance plan attracts skepticism and support

It’s a puzzle that has vexed policymakers, education leaders and business groups for decades, but it’s one that Sen. Chester Crandell hopes to solve: How can the state revamp education funding to be both fair and simple?

Members of a panel tasked with studying Arizona’s personal income tax system said that while flattening or doing away with the income tax may be a popular talking point, the state’s current system is reasonably fair and may not need a major overhaul.

Two years after efforts at the Capitol to create a flat income tax rate in Arizona failed, a state representative wants to tackle the issue again with the hope of proposing legislation next year.

Long before casting their votes for Medicaid expansion and a bipartisan budget proposal, Republican lawmakers who chose to support Gov. Jan Brewer had been issued a warning: Vote yes at your own risk.