Statehouse paranoia and angst always peak every 10 years in Springfield.

Why? The new state legislative-district maps are drawn, and that highly political process always involves generous amounts of partisan mischief-making and revenge.

This year is no different. The Democrats control both legislative chambers and the governor's office, so they can pretty much draw any map they want as long as they follow federal and state voting-rights laws that protect minorities and other "communities of interest."

The Republicans, locked out of power and influence, just knew they were in for a beating, and they got one. In many respects, it probably wasn't as bad as it was 10 years ago, when the Democrats drew a map so solidly partisan that the House and Senate Democratic majorities easily survived one of the biggest Republican landslides in history.

Rahm Emanuel will be sworn in as Chicago's new mayor on May 16, just 15 days before the end of the state legislative session. So while Emanuel has more than enough on his plate dealing with the first Chicago mayoral transition in 22 years, he and his team appear well aware that they will have precious few days to get what they want out of the Statehouse after he's inaugurated.

Emanuel's transition team hired a Statehouse emissary several weeks ago. They're not calling him a "lobbyist," however. He's more of an "observer," they say. And they decided not to call attention to themselves by choosing any of the well-known, Chicago-connected contract lobbyists in town. Instead, they hired Mike Ruemmler, who ran Emanuel's campaign advance team. Born and raised in southern Illinois' Mt. Vernon, Ruemmler is not your typical city lobbyist. Ruemmler ran a campaign for state Senator Michael Frerichs, so he has some Statehouse connections.

Emanuel has tried hard not to step on Mayor Daley's toes, using the "one mayor at a time" phrase over and over. While that philosophy has extended to Springfield, it doesn't mean Emanuel is completely uninvolved. He sat down with House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton, and Senator Kimberly Lightford before the final school-reform deal was made. His staff also worked on behalf of Lightford's bill, and Emanuel has since pledged to make sure the House passes it.

Some big Chicago-area retailers have found a way to avoid paying high local sales taxes on their wholesale purchases. They've essentially set up their own "tax havens" in Downstate counties that have no local sales taxes. The havens are mostly just one-person offices with a fax machine.

The retailers contract to purchase mass quantities of fuel, or construction equipment, or lumber, or whatever, and then those contracts are faxed to their little Downstate offices, stamped as received and then faxed back to headquarters and - voilà - no high local sales taxes are owed.

Back in January, the Illinois Department of Revenue lost a court case filed by Hartney Fuel Oil Company, Putnam County, and the little town of Mark, Illinois (population 500). Hartney is based in Cook County but had a "sales office" in no-tax Mark. The Department of Revenue claimed Hartney owed sales taxes in Cook, but a Putnam County judge disagreed.

Nobody really noticed. But then some folks got the bright idea of introducing a bill at the Statehouse to codify the Downstate court case to make certain that all Chicago-area companies had the same option.

Bad move.

Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman seemed to be under the impression after his meeting last week with Governor Pat Quinn that the state's income-tax hike would actually expire in four years.

"The tax increase is temporary," Oberhelman told reporters, who wanted to know how he really felt about the recent tax hike. There'd been much media speculation that the Caterpillar CEO was so unhappy about the tax increase that he might move his company elsewhere. Oberhelman added that revenue growth will be necessary to fill the gap, and "it's going to take some spending cuts," which, he said, he was confident that Quinn could pull off.

After Oberhelman answered the question, Quinn told reporters that the "income tax is a four-year situation," and said he wanted to "erase the deficit" during that time.

Technically and legally, the tax hike is temporary. Two income-tax hikes have been allowed to expire in Illinois history, so it's possible that this one will as well.

But the governor used phantom revenues in his most recent budget plan and proposed an increase in state spending, not a decrease.