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UpClose with Kirk Adams: Session was ‘culmination’ of legislative career
House Speaker Kirk Adams had quite the final year in the Legislature, authoring a major overhaul of the state’s public pension system and finally accomplishing last year’s goal of passing a bill aimed at making Arizona more business-friendly.
GOP-led Legislature focused on ‘sideshows,’ not mainstream agenda
If this unfortunate legislative session has to be remembered in years to come, it will be recalled as a time that politicians put sideshows ahead of seriousness. Birther bills, birthright citizenship, and tea party license plates are great at getting partisan activists riled up.
Former ASU pollster Bruce Merrill to do new polls
The former director of the Arizona State University Survey Research Center and the Cronkite/Eight Poll is again doing statewide polls.
A renewed focus on dynamic, decisive action
Having worked around the state Capitol for many years before being elected in November, I witnessed the prosperous years when legislators fought over take-home projects for their districts. And I also saw the lean years when legislators shook every penny out of the state’s piggy bank and used debt financing and fancy accounting gimmicks just to get by.Â
This year was very different.Â[...]
Arizona freeze on Medicaid awaits word from feds
Arizona officials hope for word Friday on whether they can start implementation of Gov. Jan. Brewer's plan to reduce Medicaid enrollment to help balance the state budget.
Voters get final choice on dismantling Clean Elections
After years of having nothing to show for their legislative efforts to dismantle Arizona’s public campaign financing system, state business leaders and other opponents of Clean Elections enlisted the help of an unlikely ally.
On April 18, the Senate refered SCR1025 to the 2012 ballot. The success of the measure, which would ask voters to effectively gut Arizona’s embattled 13-year-o[...]
IRC picks former chairman nominee Bladine as executive director
Ray Bladine wasn’t selected to be the chairman of the Independent Redistricting Commission, but he’ll still get to play a critical role in drawing up new political lines for the state – and now he’ll get paid for his work.
Senate passes ballot referral that aims to dismantle Clean Elections system
In a major victory for opponents of the state’s Clean Elections system, the Senate approved a ballot referral Monday that aims to gut public financing for candidates of public office.
Brewer signs budget
Calling it a milestone on Arizona’s road to recovery, Gov. Jan Brewer signed a fiscal year 2012 budget that she said made painful – but necessary – cuts that would protect the state’s fiscal health for years to come.
Arizona governor to act on new state budget
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is up against a deadline to act on a new budget that authorizes cuts in the state's Medicaid program while permitting restored coverage for medical transplants.
Revised data show recession hit AZ harder than previous estimates
Revised unemployment data indicate that the national recession hit Arizona’s job market far harder than previously believed, and the sputtering job growth continues to dampen reports of positive growth in other sectors of the economy.
To kill Clean Elections, lawmakers who used it must pull trigger
Opponents of Arizona’s Clean Elections system are optimistic about the latest measure to effectively kill public campaign financing in Arizona. The House, where similar measures have died in the past, has a Republican supermajority of legislators elected on promises of fiscal responsibility. Now is the perfect time, they say, to pass a measure they call the “No Taxpayer Subsidies for Political[...]
