If the Arizona Coyotes want lawmakers to pass legislation that will allow them to build a new publicly funded hockey arena, the team will have to find a way to overcome the Legislature’s historic opposition to the funding mechanism it hopes to use.

Despite being turned down by one key lawmaker, the Arizona Coyotes continue seeking legislation to allow creation of a municipal taxing district that would give the National Hockey League franchise a new arena, its president told The Arizona Republic.

Maricopa County Community College District students have been hit with three tuition hikes since 2012, but that hasn't stopped top system administrators from enjoying increasingly costly perks including deep-tissue massages at a four-star resort, unrestricted spending allowances of up to $32,500 a year, and vehicle stipends large enough to buy a new car annually, records obtained by The Arizona Republic show......

As government regulators and law enforcement agencies in Washington and around the country have come to recognize that some of the biggest for-profit colleges have been deceiving and abusing students, and as media reports have exposed these abuses, and as many students have started to look elsewhere for their educations, at least one State -- Arizona -- seems to remain firmly in the political clutches of for-profit schools.

When it comes to state-government finances, Republican and Democratic lawmakers agree on one thing: They hate tax credits.

You would never know by watching them.

Over the past two decades, the Legislature has created dozens of income-tax credits, starving the state's general fund of more than $400 million a year that instead goes directly to taxpayers' favorite schools, charities and business ventures.

State lawmakers may put a stop to Pima Community College’s longtime practice of overstating its enrollment to prop up its spending limit.

A bill supported by some legislators but opposed by a tax watchdog would force the school to reduce its annual spending ceiling by basing it on an average of actual enrollment instead of on estimates.

Identical bills are making their way through both chambers of the Arizona Legislature that would put an end to $211 million in annual state funding to 18 school districts.
HB 2401 cleared the Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 15, while SB 1125 cleared the Senate Finance Committee last week.

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/blog/business/2016/02/education-bill…

http://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/economy/2016/02/06/arizon…

Arizona governments and other public entities continued to reduce their indebtedness last year. Borrowing has slowed considerably since the boom years prior to the recession.

Like consumers wary about bloated credit-card balances, government entities throughout Arizona have been reluctant to take on more new debt.

PHOENIX
Legislation enacting a major overhaul of the state's badly underfunded public safety worker pension plan was unanimously approved Wednesday by a Senate committee and will likely come to a vote Thursday by the full Senate.

The overhaul is backed by firefighter and police unions as well as cities, towns and other public agencies that pay into the system. They worked with Sen. Debbie Lesko for the past year to come up with a plan to fix the trouble system.

http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/lawmaker…

PHOENIX - Lawmakers are again seeking a big property tax break for a growing private Christian university in Phoenix, reviving an effort to benefit Grand Canyon University that was derailed over constitutional concerns in 2014.