While other contributors to state revenues have dropped off severely of late, the Arizona Lottery has been a growing source of tens of millions of dollars per year since its inception in 1980. The lottery funds a variety of voter-approved state programs in areas such as education, health and transportation and has contributed $2.3 billion in all to its beneficiaries.

The Arizona Supreme Court announced on Dec. 2 it will not hear a lawsuit filed by local governments that sought to challenge legislation affecting land development and public benefits for immigrants. The petition for special action filed with the court on Nov. 23 by the League of Arizona Cities and Towns charged that the provisions in question were unconstitutionally included in a state budget bill.

"They do good things 99 percent of the time." - Gov. Jan Brewer, commenting on the Legislature, while criticizing the League of Arizona Cities and Towns' recent lawsuit against the state.

Before Gov. Jan Brewer and legislative leadership can settle their most recent legal dispute with the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, the sides may have to agree on exactly what they're fighting about.

A recent vote by the League of Arizona Cities and Towns to sue the Legislature in an attempt to undo provisions passed in the most recent special session could have broader effects on the lobbying group for local governments.

Arizona ranks ninth nationally in its reliance on sales taxes to fund its state and local governments, according to a report by a nonpartisan tax research organization. The Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation found that 48.4 percent of Arizona's tax base came from general sales taxes and from selective sales taxes on motor fuel, tobacco, insurance premiums, public utilities, amusements and alcoholic beverages.

The Arizona Supreme Court on Sept. 30 will weigh the fate of a tax rebate offered by the city of Phoenix to lure a developer that built a massive shopping mall in the northern outskirts of the city. The 1997 ...

Privatizing prisons and transferring a portion of vehicle taxes to the general fund are two of the options a Senate panel will consider today as part of several measures intended to close a $3-billion budget gap.

The biggest differences between the Republican budget proposal released April 27 and a draft leaked to the press a month earlier were two components designed to generate more than $500 million in revenue without raising taxes. And those two ideas have created the biggest backlash against the latest proposal.

The House and Senate Appropriations committees were scheduled to meet jointly on April 28 to discuss a budget proposal to allow the state to sweep hundreds of millions of dollars from cities. But the hearing was cancelled at the last minute because, as at least one lawmaker put it, a homebuilders association was not prepared to give a presentation.