The passage of a federal stimulus package to help state and local governments weather the COVID-19 pandemic gives Gov. Doug Ducey discretion over at least part of a $1.5 billion sum — adding to tens of millions he already had at his disposal as part of an emergency spending plan passed by the Legislature in March.

As Gov. Doug Ducey welcomed in a new decade with his address to the joint session of the Legislature on January 13, it became clear that he left the Era of Good Feelings behind in 2019.

Even after settling on a multi-billion spending plan for the next year, there was plenty left unsettled when lawmakers went home for the summer.

Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, knows how to get legislation passed. This year, he learned how to get it vetoed.

The Senate passed a bill Wednesday regulating horse racing simulcasts Wednesday over pleas from the original sponsor to kill it.

House and Senate committees approved competing proposals to regulate car sharing in Arizona, with lawmakers split on how to tax the emerging industry.

Sen. J.D. Mesnard told the Arizona Capitol Times that Ducey is in for a long and bumpy ride this legislative session after the governor vetoed a bill, backed by all but one Republican lawmaker, to offset estimates of higher tax collections this year by roughly $150 million or more.

Republican senators advanced a bill that would expand eligibility for Arizona’s school voucher program and strip oversight of those vouchers from the newly elected Democratic head of the Department of Education.

A Republican lawmaker wants the state to hire a private company to oversee and administer Arizona’s voucher program and wants State Treasurer Kimberly Yee, not the newly elected Democratic superintendent, to choose the vendor.

Two Republican lawmakers are at odds over what constitutes a “car rental” in the new sharing economy.