ARIZONA BUDGET OUTLOOK IMPROVING

posted by Andrea Kelly

Arizona's budget may not be rapidly improving yet, but state budget experts say it shouldn't be getting worse next year.

There's even better news for local governments. State Rep. John Kavanagh said next year there will likely not be further cuts to the state funding that is reserved for local government spending. An example of this is road funding. Much of the city and county road repair money comes from state transportation taxes, so the state doles them out to local governments, but has withheld some in recent years

“We’re trying to undo all the not particularly popular, desperate things we did to prevent a massive tax increase and even greater reductions in services over the last three years," he said.

Kavanagh is on the house appropriations committee, which hashes through the budget details before the full house votes on the spending bills. In an interview, he said the state does not anticipate asking Pima and Maricopa county governments to contribute to the state general fund. In the past few years, the state has required them to give local funding to the state to fill in the state's budget deficit.

REDISTRICTING REDUX: SPECIAL SESSION PONDERED

posted by Michael Chihak

See the Arizona Week Notebook Blog for a rundown of the facts and foibles of the fight over Arizona redistricting.

And stay tuned. There's surely more to come.

GOULD FILES PAPERWORK FOR CONGRESSIONAL RUN

posted by Andrea Kelly

Republican State Sen. Ron Gould has been rumored to be considering a Congressional run in 2012, but he appears to be in the race now, no longer exploring whether to launch a campaign.

Gould filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Committee to become a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Arizona. He's said he'd like to run in what could be the new district four, along the state's western border with California (that is, if district lines don't change by the time the redistricting commission and the U.S. Department of Justice review the proposed lines).

While Gould's campaign committee is called "Gould for Congress (Exploratory)," he's submitted a formal statement of candidacy.

Usually, candidates who are exploring whether to run for a federal office open their exploratory committees with tax filings with the Internal Revenue Service, which is what Republican State Sen. Frank Antenori has done. Gould instead went straight to the Federal Elections Commission, which is where candidates are required to file financial and organizational records once they're officially running for office.

REDISTRICTING RESTART; LEGALITIES LINGER

posted by Michael Chihak

The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission will resume meeting Tuesday. As it does, the specter of more legal fighting hangs over state politics.

The commission's will meet after a three-week hiatus for legal proceedings over the unseating and reinstalling of chair Colleen Mathis.

Meetings will be held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in Tempe so the five-member commission can review comments and testimony that came to it during a month of public meetings around the state. Those meetings ended in early November, when the commission was supposed to begin finalizing its congressional and legislative maps.

Instead, Gov. Jan Brewer notified Mathis that her removal was being sought for "gross negligence" in the way she conducted the commission's business. Brewer -- backed by a two-thirds vote in the state Senate -- accused Mathis of violating the state Open Meeting Law and of violating the state constitution's provisions for redistricting.

Mathis was removed on the Senate's vote, but she and the commission appealed to the state Supreme Court. The court first ordered Mathis reinstalled, saying Brewer had overstepped, then rejected the governor's request for a stay of the order pending further appeal.

The legal fireworks almost certainly won't end with that. Brewer's spokesman says she is considering her options, and legislators are considering theirs, too.

Don't be surprised if the governor takes another legal step this week, and that could include calling a special legislative session at which an early ballot measure would be proposed to in effect repeal the 2000 voter initiative that created the commission.

REDISTRICTING BACK TO COURT

posted by Christopher Conover

Governor Brewer and Senate President Russell Pearce are asking the Arizona Supreme Court to stay the reinstatement of Colleen Mathis as the Chair of the Independent Redistricting Commission.

In paperwork filed with the state Supreme Court, attorneys for the Governor and Senate President argue that since the Court only issued an order and did not explain its reasoning nobody knows how the decision was flawed. Brewer and Pearce say that infringes on their constitutionally granted ability to remove a member of the IRC.

When the Arizona Supreme Court reinstated Mathis, the Vice Chief Justice wrote that an opinion explaining the ruling would come in “due time.” He did not, however, indicate an exact timetable.

SCHAPIRA: ANOTHER CONGRESSIONAL EXPLORER

posted by Michael Chihak

Arizona Senate Minority Leader David Schapira of Tempe announced on his Website today that he is exploring a run for Congress.

Schapira made the announcement in a three-minute video in which he outlines what he considers to be the top issues -- children hurt by educational cuts, struggling middle class, "Congress completely out of touch".

"What I've learned is Arizonans don't want elected officials who focus on an extreme agenda," Schapira says in the video "We need jobs, not partisan bickering. Arizonans want leaders who represent the values of our community and have a vision for the future."

Because the state's congressional districts haven't been finalized for the next decade, it is uncertain exactly where Schapira would run. But like other potential candidates, his exploration is based on a hunch that there will be a Democratic-leaning or at the least a competitive district drawn where he lives.