Arizona: Jan Brewer

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Accidental Governor will find that succession to office is so much easier than election to office.

Jan Brewer will announce today that she intends to run for governor in 2010. Apparently she believes that gross incompetence and abject failure are to be rewarded.

The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports:

Gov. Jan Brewer is expected to put an end to the questions about her candidacy this evening (Nov. 5) with an announcement that she will seek a full term as governor. Brewer is scheduled to speak at Westmarc's 17th annual Best of the West awards dinner. One source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Arizona Capitol Times the announcement would be made at the event.

Posted by azBlueMeanie:

It appears the Accidental Governor and the GOP insane clown posse leadership have come to a tentative agreement on a Special Session, but leadership hasn't polled their membership on the specifics of any proposed spending cuts to know whether the bill has the votes necessary to pass. The Accidental Governor does not want to call a Special Session unless she is assured of the vote in advance - unlike the open-ended fiasco this past summer. So the agreement in actuality remains in doubt.

The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports:

Legislative leaders and the governor have reached an agreement on the framework of a special session later this month.

Gov. Jan Brewer's long-awaited report on how to improve Maricopa County's mental health care system came out this morning, and it contains a dramatic proposal: take the adults from what is known as the general mental health population, which includes people who have less serious mental illnesses, and bring them into the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. The general population is currently served by the Department of Health Services.
People who do not qualify for AHCCCS would continue to receive treatment through DHS and its regional behavioral health authorities -- Magellan, in Maricopa County.
As for the seriously mentally ill, whose illnesses ...

read the rest of this post

by David Safier

From the Arizona Guardian (subscription only):

Health care and child care facilities will have to pay thousands more to be licensed in Arizona under new fee schedules released Tuesday that are intended to make businesses shoulder the regulatory cost.

The largest child care centers will see their licensing fees increase 90 times over, while small behavioral health group homes will pay quadruple their current costs.

Across the board, the facilities that care for Arizona’s youngest, oldest and most infirm will over the next three months go from paying some of the lowest regulatory costs in the Western region to the highest. Advocates say that's likely to increase the supply of unregulated care and raise costs as the fee increases are passed on to families.