After racing through the Senate in two days, the state budget has come to a screeching halt in the House as state lawmakers battle over key issues. Chief among them: a proposal to stop school districts from converting their schools to charters and, in the process, collecting more state revenue per student.

The budget proposal that passed the Senate would retroactively forbid the practice after June 2013, impacting more than a dozen schools that have been converted during the past year and costing some districts millions of dollars.

Arizonans deserve a better accounting of what they get in return for state tax credits given each year to companies, a public interest advocate says.

“We want to make sure this money is a good use of taxpayer dollars,” said Serena Unrein with the Arizona Public Interest Research Group.

“We have very little information on what actually happens,” she added.

A House committee has approved a bill that would make some tax credits claimed by corporations public information.

House Bill 2586 would require the state Department of Revenue to submit an annual report detailing the names of companies who get corporate credits of $5,000 or more and to make that report public.

Republican bill sponsor Darin Mitchell of Litchfield Park says the bill would create transparency and allow policy makers to examine whether such tax credits are effective for economic development.

PHOENIX — A House committee has approved a bill that would make some tax credits claimed by corporations public information.

House Bill 2586 would require the state Department of Revenue to submit an annual report detailing the names of companies who get corporate credits of $5,000 or more and to make that report public.

Republican bill sponsor Darin Mitchell of Litchfield Park says the bill would create transparency and allow policy makers to examine whether such tax credits are effective for economic development.

PHOENIX -- The Arizona Legislature is considering giving a big property tax break to a private Christian university in west Phoenix that plans to expand to Mesa and possibly Tucson.

The Senate Finance Committee voted 6-1 Wednesday to cut the taxes Grand Canyon University must pay every year by reclassifying it into a much lower rate.

If passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jan Brewer, the university's tax bill for its Phoenix campus this year would drop from slightly more than $1 million to about $264,000.

Gov. Jan Brewer speaks proudly of her role in lifting the state out of the massive deficit she inherited in 2009. And with her final budget proposal, she seems intent on making sure her successor doesn’t have to say the same thing.

The governor’s budget defied expectations that she would use her final year in office to significantly increase spending for K-12 schools, higher education and other areas. Instead, Brewer took a more modest approach intended to keep new spending relatively low so the state’s budget will be structurally balanced by fiscal year 2016.

Arizona Tax Research Association Director Kevin McCarthy offers his perspective on revenue options available to lawmakers as they look for ways to balance the current year state budget.

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Arizona municipalities are on edge about a proposal to change the way Arizona taxes construction materials, saying it poses a threat to city revenue.

The reform would charge sales tax on raw materials that contractors purchase at checkout rather than the existing system, which allows the state and cities to tax the final price of the project.

For cities and towns where construction activity is on the rebound, the reform could mean a shift in revenue to areas where contracting suppliers are abundant, instead of where the actual construction occurs.

The Arizona Tax Research Association (ATRA) has unveiled the results of its review of fiscal year 2014 adopted county budgets.
In the report, ATRA summarized all the tax rates in Navajo County for special districts, property taxes and sales taxes, as well as other sources of revenue, such as Highway User Revenue Fund (HURF), and expenditures.