The state’s commitment to regulatory reform is clashing with its need to balance the budget, and the result is a rising cost of doing business for Arizona companies.

Critics of the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission who are eying a lawsuit have a strong supporter: House Speaker Andy Tobin.

Failing to deliver an extension to unemployment benefits, the first day of the special session instead ended in recrimination that is once again threatening the fragile relationship between Gov. Jan Brewer and the Republican-led Legislature.

Records from the past three legislative sessions point to a simple truism of the citizen-legislature model: The shorter the session, the better the attendance.

By keeping a 100-day session — the length prescribed by legislative rules — 27 of the Legislature’s 90 members voted on every bill that was brought to the floor, and only one lawmaker missed more than 20 percent of floor votes.

The Senate minority announced an audacious goal this year — to put the spotlight on Republicans and their legislation. That task fell to a young father to articulate his party’s positions in a year when Republicans, who are control both chambers, don’t even need a single Democratic vote to pass emergency legislation.

The immediate challenge for Senate Minority Leader David Schapira, a Tempe Democrat, and his caucus was to avoid being relegated to irrelevance.

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.

Before the session began, Republicans crowed about the super majorities, and boasted that it would allow them to overrule Gov. Jan Brewer, should she have the temerity to veto their bills.

But Brewer vetoed 29 bills this year, including several that had overwhelming Republican support in both chambers. And despite their supermajority advantage, the Republicans in the House and Senate never once tried to override a veto.

With the legislative session over, Kirk Adams was finally able to do what he’d wanted to do for months, and what some have expected him to do for years: run for Congress.

After serving as Gov. Jan Brewer’s general counsel since her early days at the Secretary of State’s Office, Joe Kanefield is moving to the private sector.

With the budget out of the way, many legislators are getting anxious to wrap up their work and get back to their districts. For some, however, their focus turns to getting serious consideration for their own legislation before the session ends. Traditionally, these remaining measures are referred to as “going-home” bills.