With the economy the way it is, just about every state in the country is frantically scrambling to keep its local corporations from leaving or attracting new jobs by doling out huge government incentives.

Illinois, of course, is a special case, which means it'll probably cost us lots more to keep and attract jobs than just about any other state.

Our years-long political civil war between former Governor Rod Blagojevich and House Speaker Mike Madigan during the worst international economic crisis since the Great Depression saddled the state with migraines for years to come. No problems were solved or even addressed while everything was collapsing around them during their fight to the death. By the time Blagojevich was finally arrested, impeached, and removed from office, the state found itself with a $9-billion hole in its budget.

The Iowa House on Tuesday night voted 58-40 along party lines for a sweeping property-tax-relief plan that could cost as much as $1 billion, despite repeated warnings from Democrats that the bill would give tax breaks to businesses while increasing taxes for Iowa homeowners and farmers.

"Do you really believe we should raise taxes on our parents, our children, our farmers in order to give a 40-percent tax cut to Wal-Mart?" asked state Representative Jerry Kearns, D-Keokuk, who also is a staff representative for the United Steelworkers Union. "I don't believe so."

Senate File 522, as approved by the House, includes a rollback on commercial and industrial property taxes from 100 percent to 60 percent of valuation over five years. To make up the lost revenue, the state eventually would provide $250 million a year to local governments. The bill limits residential and agricultural property-tax increases to 2 percent, rather than the current 4 percent. It also increases state aid to schools at a cost of up to $555 million by Fiscal Year 2019.

The 2011 session of the Iowa legislature will go on for weeks if not months, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal said Thursday.

"This is going to take a while," said Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs).

A budget agreement between Republican Governor Terry Branstad, the Republican-controlled House, and the Democrat-led Senate is needed by June 30, the end of the fiscal year, to avert a government shutdown. House Speaker Kraig Paulsen predicted that an agreement would be reached by then.

"House Republicans are not going to let government shut down," said Paulsen (R-Hiawatha). "I think that would be unacceptable."

This year's situation is similar to one in 1992, when Branstad, who also was governor at that time, and the Democrat-controlled legislature were also deadlocked on the state budget and tax policy. A compromise was eventually reached on June 25, in a second special session.

Following Jeff Terronez's resignation as Rock Island County state's attorney and his guilty plea last week, I was waiting for the Quad Cities' daily newspapers to forcefully and directly raise a simple question: Why didn't he resign sooner?

More relevant at this point: Why didn't the county's Democratic leaders strongly encourage his resignation long before he agreed to a plea deal?

Alas, the closest the newspapers got was the Quad-City Times' April 27 editorial: "Terronez ... has decimated the credibility of his office, his former colleagues, and every Democrat who stood by silently as this crime was covered up for at least six months. That's how long Terronez dodged specific questions from us and others about this crime. ... If, as Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan claimed, police found only enough to charge him with providing the alcohol [to a minor], Terronez could have cleared that up with an honest answer in October."

But the "honest answer" the Times said Terronez should have provided is far different from his resignation. And both the Times and Rock Island Argus/Moline Dispatch seem more concerned with getting full details of the Illinois State Police investigation.