The coming week...

As usual, all info gathered from the websites of the relevent political bodies/agencies (except where noted) and subject to change without notice.


...Both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate are in recess until next week.

...The Arizona legislature is between special sessions right now. The third special session was adjourned in order to give their Governor more time to "evaluate" the budget bills that they've sent her.

In this context, "evaluate" means work out a deal so that the expected (but not yet officially-called) fourth special session of the lege will approve sending her proposed temporary increase to the state's sales tax to the ballot in a December election.

No timetable has been set for a fourth special session. To make a planned election in December though, it will have to happen soon after Labor Day.

Of course, Brewer could just say "[bleep] them all!", sign the budget bills as is (as out of balance as they are) and resign, giving over the mess to AG Terry Goddard. Besides being a fiscal disaster that it would take the state decades to recover from, it would have some electoral side effects.

Such a move would saddle him with the budget mess while mounting his expected campaign for Governor next year, *and* shortening his potential stay on the 9th floor (term limits kick in, even for partial terms in office).

Stay tuned, because this ride won't be over for a while yet...

...The Arizona Corporation Commission doesn't have any full meetings this week, though there are a number of hearings planned. Full list here.

...The Board of Directors of the Central Arizona Project has meetings scheduled for Thursday - full board at 10:15 a.m.; the Public Policy Committee at 9 a.m.; and the Strategic Plan Task Force at 12:45 p.m.

...The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has an informal meeting, with an attached executive session, scheduled for Monday. They have a formal meeting scheduled for Wednesday, with an executive session planned immediately following that meeting.

The highlight of Monday's meeting looks to be an update on the new Court Tower project. Wednesday's meeting looks to be pretty run-of-the-mill, though there could be nuggets of controversy hiding among the mundanity of what is essentially a city council agenda (for a *really* spread out city :) ).

...The Board of Directors of the Maricopa Integrated Health System has a special meeting scheduled for Monday afternoon. The agenda is light on details so far, but has subjects like "Performance Evaluation" and "Employment Agreement."

Not scheduled to meet this week: Arizona Board of Regents, Citizens Clean Elections Commission, Governing Board of the Maricopa County Community College District, and the City Councils of Tempe and Scottsdale (though both are expected to participate in the festivities of the 2009 League of Arizona Cities and Towns Annual Conference in Oro Valley. The conference runs from Tuesday through Friday).

Later...