Budget stalls as number of GOP holdouts grows
After Republican leaders boasted that they would introduce a budget Monday and finish it this week, the Arizona Senate adjourned Thursday evening with no budget vote and a warning from Senate President Karen Fann that lawmakers should be prepared to work Saturday and Memorial Day.
House Republican threatens vote against budget
Saying the budget agreement crafted by GOP legislative leaders and Gov. Doug Ducey is “not a conservative budget,” Rep. Tony Rivero, R-Peoria, vowed to vote against it Thursday unless his colleagues agreed to several significant changes.
Ducey, GOP legislative leaders agree on $11.8B spending plan
Gov. Doug Ducey would get much of what he asked for as part of an $11.8 billion budget deal struck with Republican legislative leaders, including savings of more than a billion dollars.
Senate approves horse racing bill despite sponsor’s objections
The Senate passed a bill Wednesday regulating horse racing simulcasts Wednesday over pleas from the original sponsor to kill it.
Preliminary Senate budget defies Ducey’s priorities
A budget proposal from Senate Republican leaders woefully fails to meet Gov. Doug Ducey’s biggest spending and saving priorities, and has isolated some rank-and-file GOP senators who’ve vowed to vote against it.
No deal on tax conformity as deadline to file tax returns looms
With two weeks until the deadline for Arizonans to file individual income tax returns, Republican lawmakers and Gov. Doug Ducey have yet to strike a deal that will finalize the state’s tax laws for 2018.
Minimum wage change passes out of Senate committee
Legislation to allow employers to pay some young people less than the voter-mandated minimum wage cleared a crucial hurdle Thursday after its sponsor agreed it would not be tied to whether the worker was in school.
Former AG revs up initiative to end ‘dark money’
Armed with volunteers and 15 months until a deadline, former Attorney General Terry Goddard launched a new bid Tuesday to end "dark money'' anonymous donations to Arizona political campaigns.
Senators advance ballot question to adopt Arizona lieutenant governor
Arizona senators approved a bill to give the state’s voters a chance to shake up the line of succession for the governor’s office.
SOS AZ wants real reforms of vouchers, not extinction
Remarkably, I learned at last week’s Senate Finance Committee hearing that there are some people who still don’t know Save Our Schools Arizona’s stance on the Empowerment Scholarship Account voucher program. As an educator, I’m accustomed to repeating myself over and over again day after day for years on end, so I’m more than happy to apply that skill here.
Would you take away the ESA program from parents, or not
Families participating in Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program received a warm and welcome reassurance at the Senate Finance Committee hearing on SB 1395, a bill that would alleviate many of the administrative struggles ESA parents have faced in navigating the program’s rules.
We must keep the heat on voucher backers
So, the fight continues because those in power do not care. So we watch. We attend hearings. We fill committee rooms. We report. We post. We tweet. We expose. We write these letters. We keep pushing the truth against those that want to twist, ignore or deny the facts.