A new helicopter, more prison beds, money to pay utility bills – state agencies sent the Governor’s Office their annual budget requests detailing big and small priorities they hope the governor will include in his executive budget proposal to lawmakers in January.

Are the wheels coming off of the Dept of Revenue? Georganna Meyer, the agency’s former chief economist who is now a senior economist at the Maguire Company, said historically, DOR would have about 30 corporate auditors monitoring between 50,000 and 60,000 companies.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has unanimously adopted a $2.3 billion budget for fiscal year 2017.

The state agency that compiles geologic data faces a financial crunch and potential job cuts after state officials made it part of the University of Arizona without providing any funding.

Gov. Doug Ducey’s second legislative session did not go quite as smoothly as his first. Whereas 2015 was the shortest session in decades and a budget agreement was reached with legislative leadership in record time, 2016 dragged on into May as Ducey and lawmakers negotiated the budget.

Showing a commitment to improving outcomes for Arizona children in the state’s care, lawmakers made child welfare one of the greatest beneficiaries of the $9.6 billion budget adopted earlier this month.

Lawmakers like to say that a budget is a reflection of values. But it’s also a collection of policies, some of which might not have stood a chance as stand-alone measures.

The House of Representatives rejected an attempt to restore a federally funded children’s health insurance program over concerns that it would “blow up the budget.”

As lawmakers milled around the Capitol waiting for the final word on a budget deal, children’s advocates and legislative Democrats made a last-minute attempt to ratchet up the pressure to restore Arizona’s KidsCare program.

The budget framework approved by legislative leadership and Gov. Doug Ducey appears to give a green light to a contentious proposal that would dramatically reduce property taxes for Grand Canyon University and, in the process, raise them for others who live near the school.