In just a few years, new business and higher education centers have emerged downtown along with many more housing and entertainment options and a soon-to-be-completed new grocery outlet in the center of the city. In cities across the state, the downtown area no longer goes dark after 5 p.m., but is a place where people live, work and socialize throughout the day.

Republican lawmakers are proposing an increase in vehicle license fees to end years of raids on dedicated local highway funding that paid for highway patrol operations.

The ink is barely dry on the budget when residents of our 91 cities and towns and 15 counties register their complaints with local officials about streets and roads showing signs of age, inadequate maintenance and disrepair.

For decades, Arizona was blessed with high quality, high capacity highways stretching from border to border. But growth and economic prosperity have filled the state’s key commercial corridors, and little capacity has been added.

Gov. Jan Brewer made Child Protective Services the centerpiece of her legislative agenda this year, but after four months of debate, lawmakers sent her a budget that leaves much of the work and funding necessary to create a new child protection agency unfinished.

Tax revenues have risen as the state’s economy improved, leading to renewed hopes that 2014 will be the year Arizona stops sweeping highway funds that cities and counties depend on.

The House Appropriations Committee today approved a package of House budget bills that were amended to directly mirror the spending proposal approved by the Senate last week.

The House is taking its first steps toward introducing its own budget proposal as a counter to the proposal the Senate introduced late Monday.

County governments have been heavily hit by state budget cuts in recent years, causing leaders to strip vital services down to the bare bones, lay off skilled employees and slice large chunks of money from nearly every line in their budgets.

As the year comes to a close and a new legislative session is on the horizon, lobbyists and lobbying groups across the state are firming up their agendas and trying to get lawmakers’ ears and votes.