Rejecting arguments about economic development, clean air and even constitutional issues, a Senate panel voted along party lines March 31 to strip the Arizona Corporation Commission of its power to set energy policy for utilities.

A top legislative priority for Gov. Doug Ducey to expand off-reservation gaming is stalled in the Senate after the House voted 48-12 to approve a mirror bill on March 4.

Rosy state revenues belie ongoing economic turmoil, particularly for lower-income Arizonans who have been disproportionately affected by job losses and wage cuts.

In response to education funding plans proposed by the governor and legislative Republicans, Democrats today released their own school funding plan, boasting that their proposal would raise nearly $4 billion dollars over 10 years without increasing taxes.

Gov. Doug Ducey noted with pride that less than two months after he took office, legislators approved a budget that he considers 99 percent of what he asked for, passing it out of both chambers in record time.

In light of devastating projections of a $1.5 billion budget shortfall in the current and next fiscal years, a Democratic lawmaker is proposing a tax on e-cigarettes, saying that the modest revenues the new tax could bring in would be a small start to bridging the deficit.

A spokesman for Gov. Jan Brewer said the governor has concerns with changes the Senate is making to the House-approved budget that could lead her to veto the spending package.

An Arizona Senate committee plans to review changes the House made in the budget package senators passed a week and a half ago.

The Arizona Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a $9.13 billion budget package fiscal 2014-2015 on Tuesday afternoon, with all votes breaking on party lines as the chamber’s Republican majority took charge.

The bulk of the funding, $6.86 million, would be used to hire caseworkers and other child welfare aids in an effort to resolve the backlog of 6,554 cases that went uninvestigated by Child Protective Service, a gross oversight that caused Gov. Jan Brewer to abolish the agency at the outset of the 2014 Legislative Session in favor of a new department that reports directly to the Ninth Floor.