Photo by Ellen O’Brien/Cronkite News
By Caitlin Sievers | AZ Mirror
The Arizona Senate has officially ended its work for this legislative session after passing its budget bills in a marathon of amendments and votes on Thursday, just hours after a tentative agreement with Republicans in the House of Representatives fell apart and that chamber went home.
The day was marked by long-winded speeches and fiery disagreements both between and within political parties. Just minutes after voting on the final budget bill a little before 2 a.m. Friday, the Senate took a bipartisan vote to end the session — also known as sine die. That vote comes before the House has voted on the budget bills that just passed through the Senate, forcing the chamber to confront the June 30 deadline to pass the budget on its own.
Several Senate Republicans harshly criticized Senate President Warren Petersen’s decision to close out the session without permission from the House.
