It’s no joke – the House has passed a budget on April Fool’s day, after nearly 17 hours of deliberation and discussion that began the previous afternoon.

Discussions started at 3:30 p.m. yesterday in the House Appropriations Committee. From there, the bills moved through the House Rules Committee, then the Committee of the Whole, and finally to a vote. The House finally adjourned at 8 a.m. today.

The tentative budget agreement legislative leaders and Gov. Jan Brewer reached late Wednesday night slashes $1.14 billion from the budget and more forcefully reflects the ascent of fiscally conservative Republicans at the Capitol.

Members of the Arizona Commerce Authority pledged that the state’s new quasi-private economic development agency take a zero-tolerance approach to backroom deals and cronyism as it gives out millions of dollars in incentives to the businesses it hopes to attract.

A compromise between House Speaker Kirk Adams and Sen. Steve Yarbrough and their respective pension reform plans passed the House Employment and Regulatory Affairs committee meeting this week.

Despite all the raw emotions it stirred and all the opposition it encountered, the Senate’s budget-slashing and gimmicks-busting proposal isn’t going to be state’s final spending plan.

Its most contentious aspects, more likely than not, will be softened and its most ragged edges smoothed out before it wins support in the House of Representatives and with Gov. Jan Brewer.

Instead of balancing the budget by borrowing money, deferring payment to schools or resorting to any other accounting maneuver, the Senate is proposing to cut spending as much it can, even if it means the current fiscal year ends with the state in the red.

“I will never say anything hateful or hurtful again about somebody else who I have a disagreement with because we must break this mold.” — Democratic Rep. Steve Farley, of Tucson.

Legislative leaders, who remember the confusion peculiar to being a new lawmaker, are working to help freshmen members begin working effectively as soon as possible, especially since they make up one-third of the House seats this year.

No opening day at the Capitol has ever resembled the one on Jan. 10, but the end of the 2011 session may not look any different from the near-century of sessions that preceded it.

Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams says he hopes the Tucson shooting helps motivate state lawmakers to be civil with each other, respecting the need to disagree respectfully when at odds on major issues.