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.

Municipalities are gearing up for a lawsuit challenging restrictions lawmakers put on cities and towns when they approved the fiscal 2010 spending plan.

The Arizona Supreme Court on Oct. 29 unanimously agreed that Arizona public records request statutes apply to electronic data-entry records and are not limited to government documents subject to copy and inspection under state law.

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.

Lawmakers and the governor said legislation passed earlier this year that limits development-impact fees is legal, despite threats of a lawsuit from municipalities. A spokesman for Brewer said she wasn't concerned about a lawsuit. "I think the governor's comfortable with the legality of what she's signed," Paul Senseman said.

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 ...

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.