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Lawmakers consider bills to avoid plastic bag lawsuit
With last year's law under legal challenge, state lawmakers launched a new bid Wednesday to prevent cities and counties from regulating or banning plastic bags.
Prop. 108 may not save cities from shared revenue punishment
The complex formula that provides Arizona cities with a portion of the state’s tax revenues is nominally protected by a provision in the state Constitution requiring a two-thirds vote for the Legislature to tamper with it.
Senate panel approves bill limiting city-issued ID cards
A Senate committee advanced legislation that would preempt efforts in Phoenix to create a city photo-identification card over protests from Phoenix residents, who labeled the effort an anti-immigrant bill in the vein of SB1070.
Flagstaff group pushing to allow cities to adopt ‘living wage’ laws
A Flagstaff group is going to court as a first step that could allow all Arizona cities to adopt their own “living wage” laws.
Legislature OKs bill to ban cities from banning plastic bags
Senate Bill 1241 by Republican Rep. Warren Petersen of Gilbert would ban counties, cities and towns from banning or charging fees for returning containers such as plastic bags or Styrofoam boxes. It also blocks cities and towns from requiring business owners from measuring or reporting energy usage.
Legislature passes bill limiting city contracts with unions
The House has passed a bill preventing cities and towns from requiring union contractors for public works projects.
New state schools chief Douglas says Common Core changes will be gradual
The state’s new top education official is promising to use her position to push for more money for public schools. But Diane Douglas won’t demand that lawmakers and incoming Gov. Doug Ducey give the schools the $317 million a court has said they’re owed right now, much less than $1 billion they may be owed for the years that schools were shorted.
Appeals court frees Arizona cities to hold elections when they want
Phoenix, Tucson and the state's 17 other charter cities can have their local elections pretty much when they want, no matter what state legislators say, the Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled.
Brewer and Campbell would give up local control of Arizona health care
Gov. Jan Brewer’s federal government expansion plan, spearheaded by Sen. John McComish’s amendment to SB1492, denies our ability to decide what health care we want to provide our citizens and how much to pay.
With a legal challenge pending, consolidated elections still isn’t a sure thing
Although cities are concerned about how they will comply with the changes resulting from consolidated elections, all the worry may be for naught, at least for charter cities, if a legal challenge against the law is successful.
Fixes for consolidated elections stall, leaving cities in dark about when to hold elections
When voters in Tucson and Phoenix went to the polls to elect their mayors in 2011, voters elected them for four years. But a bill passed last year by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer may extend the mayors’ time in office by a year. Or it may shorten their terms by a year. Nobody is sure which one it will be.
House passes bill to control private sector employee benefits
By a vote of 32-27, the House on March 4 approved a bill that would assert the Legislature’s authority over employee benefits in the private sector, and prohibit any further regulation on employee benefits by any city, county, town or political subdivision.
