Lawmakers on a House panel generally agreed an emergency measure intended to repair the fiscal 2009 budget amounts to bad policy, but the bill still managed to gain approval along a party-line vote. One by one, legislators explained their objection to using accounting gimmicks and raiding funding in schools' bank accounts.

A legislative panel may have spent the better part of seven hours debating, amending and approving a package of budget bills, but that doesn't mean action on a plan to solve a roughly $3 billion deficit is imminent. Rather, many lawmakers say the significance of the committee's work is that it sets the stage for progress to be made.

A budget crafted by House Republicans has cleared the first hurdle, gaining committee approval May 5 by a party-line vote, though it is unclear when the proposal will be taken up by the entire chamber.

If state legislators don't fund all-day kindergarten, Phoenix-area school districts say they have a backup plan to keep it in place.

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.

Republican budget proposals have been circulated at the Capitol for several days now, but lawmakers have cancelled three separate committee hearings during the past week intended to address the fiscal 2010 budget shortfall.

Republican lawmakers have released a budget proposal they say will balance a $3.3 billion budget deficit without raising taxes or borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars. Instead, they will rely heavily on cuts to education funding and municipalities.

Republican leaders are expected to unveil a budget proposal today that would close the state deficit without raising taxes and without borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars.