In Arizona, help for our schools can always wait, it seems. A 903-1 student-to-counselor ratio is an emergency. The consequences of delay could be tragic. Our state's response requires more urgency than "wait until next year."

The 2019 legislative session is finally behind us. Or is it?

Even after a taxing 134-day session, House Speaker Rusty Bowers remains patently himself when he sits down with the Arizona Capitol Times – reflective, resolute and ready with a story, which this time was about the day his brother shot himself in the foot.

How exactly do you work with someone you believe has betrayed you? That’s a question some lawmakers are asking themselves about the state’s county prosecutors after what some saw as an 11th hour reversal on criminal justice reform measures.

Republicans in the state Senate — and possibly the House — plan to start drafting next year’s budget shortly after Labor Day and have a proposal ready by the end of the year

On paper, that $11.8 billion budget signed Friday by Gov. Doug Ducey is a somewhere north of 11 percent higher than what was adopted a year ago.

Sine die watch is finally over after the Senate approved an $11.8 billion budget on Memorial Day

The fate of an $11.8 billion budget could be decided today as lawmakers debate the question of the liability of churches, the Boy Scouts and other organizations over old charges of sexual abuse.

Instead, Fann, R-Prescott, emerged from her office shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday to end the day and apologize to a group of red-shirted teachers, many of whom had spent their first day of summer vacation watching a mostly-empty Senate floor.

Just a few hours after saying she was “bound and determined” to pass a budget Friday night, Senate President Karen Fann sent senators home for the night without voting on an $11.8 billion spending plan.