When state lawmakers reconvene Monday for the 2018 legislative session, they will enter as a sexual harassment investigation is underway.
Despite that, Arizona's House Speaker JD Mesnard has insisted lawmakers will remain focused on top priorities.
He is optimistic lawmakers will work together on crafting legislation to combat the opioid crisis and find ways to reduce the high percentage of ex-convicts who return to crime.
As Arizona remains at the bottom of national numbers for teacher pay, Mesnard said that lawmakers will review the state's education spending formula.
"If we fund additional assistance in some of these other areas of the formula, I think at the end of the day -- I certainly hope -- that it makes it into teachers' wallets," Mesnard said.
As for the federal tax overhaul's impact on local taxes, Mesnard warned that doing nothing, "will mean the tax payers of this state will end up paying more in state income taxes," which he said he and many of his colleagues find unacceptable.
