It’s a little early still to begin taking stock of all this year had to offer by way of policy and politics. After all, there’s likely to be another two or three new frontrunners in the GOP presidential pool by Thanksgiving. But I’m reasonably confident that I’ll be calling 2011 the Year of the Jobs Bill.

In November, 37,000 Arizonans lost their jobs - a monthly record since the Arizona Department of Economic Security started compiling this number in 1971. Our unemployment rate stands at 6.1 percent and seems destined to increase. Arizona faces a number of challenges, including a budget deficit that as a percentage of our general fund is the worst in the nation. Still, far and away the most pressing challenge is getting Arizona's jobs machine back on track. A few years ago Arizona was creating more jobs than almost all other states. Now we are close to the very bottom.

In a commentary recently, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Donohue reminds readers that unnecessary delays in permitting projects are absolute job killers.

The two years of the 50th Arizona Legislature will go down in the history books as the years when the Legislature hit reboot on the Arizona economy and turned what was a basket case into a best case.

Imagine if your company wasn’t able to reward its best employees with raises, wasn’t able to hire new employees when they were needed, and was forced to tolerate poor performers and malcontents because of a bureaucratic maze that made firing almost impossible.

It’s that time of year to hand out some honors for the year’s best. So it is without further ado that I bring you the Third Annual Hammer Awards.

I had the privilege last week to moderate a roundtable of business people hosted by Arizona Rep. Ben Quayle and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California. It offered a look at the challenges businesses in Arizona and around the country are facing in this economy and provided welcome insight into how Congress is (or is not) responding to business' needs from two rising congressional stars.

For the first time in recent memory, getting the state to cut taxes is not at the top of the legislative agenda for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry wants to alter the state’s new employer sanctions law just in case its efforts to kill it fail.

This is a rebuttal to Glenn Hamer’s Guest Commentary in your newspaper (“Senate Appropriations Committee personnel reform vital to state’s business growth,” March 23).

The state’s largest business organization wants absolute immunity for companies that use a federal database to check new workers — even if those people are here illegally.

Gov. Jan Brewer said Tuesday she may finally give the state’s tax-cutting knife a rest.

With Congress sending up smoke signals that it might soon consider a new highway spending bill, it’s worth reminding lawmakers that Arizona is one of more than half of the states nationwide that sends more federal gas dollars to Washington than it gets back.

The state’s largest business organization is trying to engineer a $250 million tax cut even as Arizona faces a potential $1 billion deficit.

A key element of the business community is gearing up to fight a permanent extension of the state’s one-cent sales tax surcharge.

The sharp defeat of a measure to exempt more business equipment from property taxes has backers working on how and when to try again.

The first month of Arizona's penny-per-dollar sales-tax hike did not significantly alter overall spending and indicates the increase likely did not dampen a crucial piece of the economy, state economists say.

An Arizona House bill requiring employers to give their workers breaks for lunch and rest has drawn the ire of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.