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Legislature is more bipartisan than most people realize
If you are ever asked what you do for a living and you reply, “I am a lobbyist” what usually follows is a rant about how the Legislature can never get anything done, that everything is so partisan and that there is incredible gridlock.
Experts: Arizona tourism hasn’t fully recovered, but has seen ‘moderate’ improvement
Arizona’s Office of Tourism escaped initial plans to cut $4.5 million from next year’s budget, a move industry lobbyist Barry Aarons called a “big victory for the industry.”
Quaker group hopes to boost state budget by reducing mandatory sentences
A Quaker group is testing the waters for reducing Arizona’s mandatory minimum sentences as a way to save money.
Brewer modest but successful in last session
Gov. Jan Brewer’s agenda in her final regular legislative session lacked the blockbuster policies, drag-out fights and frayed nerves of 2013. Instead, the governor proposed a far more modest agenda in 2014. Relatively small spending increases in a few key areas, two low-profile economic development bills and legislation strengthening the state’s human trafficking laws were among the biggest po[...]
Experts: Brewer has as much power as ever during final year as governor
This may be Gov. Jan Brewer’s last legislative session on the Ninth Floor, but denizens of the Capitol expect it to be a year like any other for her.
Bills trickle in as lawmakers assess effects of last year’s bitter session
If the number of bills that have been pre-filed in advance of Arizona’s 2014 legislative session are any indication, lawmakers won’t have much to do at the Copper Dome this year.
Wounds from Medicaid battle to haunt 2014 session
A simmering ideological divide among Republicans surged to the surface this year, when Gov. Jan Brewer pushed unexpectedly for the expansion of Medicaid against the wishes of her party.
Federal, state laws at odds on lobbyist political contributions
To curtail the inappropriate influence of money in politics, Arizona law prohibits lobbyists from contributing to lawmakers’ campaign committees while the Legislature is in session.
Senate Democrats regroup in brutal aftermath of leadership change
On the surface, all appeared well among Democrats in the Senate. The 13-member minority caucus had a common cause to unite around in Medicaid expansion during the 2013 legislative session and was able to form a new majority in the Senate chamber by joining forces with a few breakaway Republican lawmakers.
Predicting Brewer vetoes is difficult; reasons vary
Figuring out how to avoid Gov. Jan Brewer’s veto pen is a guessing game that leaves even some of the most seasoned veterans at the Capitol perplexed.
Many lawmakers and lobbyists say there are no hard and fast guidelines for avoiding a veto from a governor who vetoed 91 bills in her first four legislative sessions.
It’s curtains for film tax credit bill
Political realities at the state Capitol have forced the film industry and its allies to abandon the push to create a tax credit program aimed at luring productions to Arizona.
New push at Capitol to outlaw electronic cigarettes for kids
To a state senator, nicotine is nicotine regardless of whether the product delivering it is chewed, smoked or inhaled as mist, and all forms should be illegal for minors.
