El Mirage Mayor Lana Mook

El Mirage officials are hosting an Easter Eggstravaganza -- "the greatest Easter event El Mirage has ever seen" -- on March 30 at Bill Gentry Park, 14010 N. El Mirage Road.

As children get their photos taken with the Easter Bunny, color eggs, pet ponies, and romp around in a bouncy house, El Mirage residents upset about yet another proposed rate increase for their water, sewer, garbage, and property taxes plan to march in protest.

See also: El Mirage Mayor Laments That Complaining Residents are Uninformed, but Doesn't Inform Them about City Presentations Offered to, Um, Inform Them

See also: Will El Mirage Ever Be Able to Emerge From the Shadow of Luke Air Force Base?

See also: El Mirage Officials Throw Up Roadblocks for Councilman Who Wants to Host Meet-and-Greet With City Residents

See also: El Mirage Officials Hire Political Pals

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Phoenix Councilman Sal DiCiccio

Phoenix Councilman Sal DiCiccio, who has spent the better part of the past two year railing about bloated government and excessive employee salaries, was the last person anyone expected to approve a massive $78,000-a-year pay raise for City Manager David Cavazos.

DiCiccio and the City Council have been slapped around by critics and others who are incensed that they gave Cavazos such an obscene raise -- increasing his salary from $237,000 to $315,000 a year.

But for DiCiccio, who has wailed the loudest and even twisted statistics on employee pay to punctuate his outrage, the vote was especially hypocritical.

See also: Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon Blasts Councilman Sal DiCiccio for Twisting Truth About Employee Pay

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limitstogrowth.org

Arizona's economy is really shaping up, based on an independent ranking of the 50 states' financial situations -- the Grand Canyon State is now the 47th best out of the 50 states, which is an improvement over the previous ranking of 48th.

The financial-news website 24/7 Wall St. has been doing these rankings for a few years now, and takes into account a state's debt, budget deficit, unemployment, household income, and the amount of residents in poverty.

See also:
-Under Jan Brewer's Fearless Leadership, Arizona Not Ranked Worst-Run State in Country -- Just Third Worst


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​Arizona Governor Jan Brewer may think that she has "did what is right" for Arizona, but an independent analysis by the financial news Web site 24/7 Wall St. disagrees.

The site has issued its "State of the States" rankings and Arizona has been ranked 48th on its list of well-run states.

The rankings are based on analysis of each state's financial situation, so if you're shocked Arizona ranked so poorly, you shouldn't be. This is the same state that was nearly forced to sell its state capitol because its budget was so out of whack.

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Will Governor Jan's prop 100 pass? Let us know in our morning poll.

​Today's the day for the public to decide on Governor Jan Brewer's miracle cure for the state budget: Proposition 100.

Brewer's been pushing for the one-percent sales-tax increase since the doom and gloom of Arizona's finances set in last summer.

Brewer's been tugging on the heartstrings of the public in her campaign to pass Prop. 100, saying it's needed to protect funding for things like education, public safety, and health and human services.

Opponents of the measure, mainly Republicans, say it's absurd to tax people more when the economy is in the tank.

People are heading to the polls right now to weigh in, and we want to know what you think: Will Brewer's plan get the public nod of approval?

Let us know what you think -- and see the results of yesterday's poll -- after the jump.

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www.knuckletattoos.com

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Feel like voluntarily ponyin' up some of your hard-earned cash to help legislators dig themselves out of the budget crisis they created? Of course you don't, but that didn't stop legislators from taking time out of their day to pass a bill that asks taxpayers to do exactly that.

The "I-didn't-pay-enough fund" is the creation of numb Skull Valley Representative Judy Burges. It asks taxpayers to voluntarily donate money to the state government to help chip away at the state's $2.6 billion budget shortfall.

You may remember Burges from one of the other -- even more embarrassing -- bills she sponsored this session, the infamous "birther" bill, also making strides in the Arizona Legislature.

Burges' "I-didn't-pay-enough" bill passed the Arizona Senate on Monday and now awaits the signature or veto of Governor Jan Brewer.

We've been laughing about this bill since we first caught wind of it last December, If history tells us anything, in about 10 years, the measure will reap about $2,500 for the state.

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www.imdb.com

​Arizona lawmakers have been playing hooky at an alarming rate during this year's legislative session, with 21 state legislators missing more than 20 percent of the floor votes in both houses of the Legislature.

Eat your heart out, Ferris Bueller.



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​In an emergency cabinet meeting today, Governor Jan Brewer laid out her latest plan to help bridge the state's multi-billion-dollar budget gap: Releasing non-violent illegal immigrants held in the state's prisons.

Following the meeting, Brewer ordered the state's prison director to begin releasing prisoners -- a move that the governor believes will save the state millions.

Don't worry -- Jan's not talking about turning the Jefferey Dahmers of the world loose on the streets of Phoenix. Those to be released are inmates that have been convicted of non-violent crimes like DUI or low-level drug offenses.

The plan isn't exactly a get-out-of-jail-free card, either. Those released would be turned over to ICE officials and eventually sent back to their native countries.

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​After much agonizing and gnashing of teeth, our illustrious legislators managed to give final approval to a special session bill on Saturday that will shave an additional $193 million off Arizona's $1.6 billion state budget deficit.

Good job, guys. Now just figure out what to do with the remaining $1.4 billion, and you can each have a Christmas cookie.

The bill cuts the funding of most state agencies by 7.5 percent, and takes another $79 million chunk out of "special purpose" funds.

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budget battle, special session

​The Arizona State Legislature enters its fourth special session of the year today, with the hopes of ironing out a plan to put some sort of dent in the current $2 billion budget gap.

Good luck.

One thing will be absent from this round of bickering, however: The standard squabble over a proposed one-cent sales tax increase.

Legislators and Governor Jan Brewer have spent a lot of time in past sessions arguing over whether to send the governor's plan for the temporary sales tax increase to the ballot.

It turns out that window has closed.

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