The Arizona Senate on Tuesday narrowly rejected an effort to revive a proposal granting a private Christian university a major break on its property taxes.
Grand Canyon University wants its property reclassified into a much lower rate that would save it about $750,000 a year on its Phoenix campus. Under the measure, any new construction at the school or at a planned Mesa campus also would be reclassified, meaning the tax break could expand greatly over time.

Arizona ranks 19th in the nation for its transparency in government spending, according to a new report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund. But the state's taxpayers remain in the dark when it comes to economic-development subsidies.

It was 1938 when John Wayne, playing the outlaw Ringo Kid, first journeyed through the buttes and mesas of Monument Valley, where his character was picked up by a group of travelers in the film "Stagecoach."

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.