Democratic lawmakers on Thursday unveiled a long-awaited tax-credit-reform package that they said would reduce Iowa's tax-credit liability by $115 million a year; Republicans and business leaders were quick to criticize the legislation and said it sends the wrong message.

"We have listened to the public's anger at abuses and we are responding with historic reforms," said Senator Joe Bolkcom (D-Iowa City), chair of the Senate Ways & Means Committee. "We are ending some tax credits, cutting many remaining credits, and dramatically increasing accountability for all tax-credit spending."

The unveiling of House Study Bill 738 came two weeks before the targeted March 26 adjournment of the legislature.

With hundreds of bills dying this week in the Iowa legislature's self-imposed second "funnel deadline," lawmakers will now move into shutdown mode with the goal of adjourning in three weeks after an 80-day session.

"Several hundred bills are dying today," House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (D-Des Moines) said Thursday. "Next week, the legislative leaders will meet and start to map out shutdown strategy."

Lawmakers in both the House and Senate will work on floor debate in the week ahead, finishing up policy bills in the next week and a half before diving into budget bills.

Jerry Clarke is not easily ruffled. Not only has he seen it all in his years running campaigns in Illinois, but he's served several tours of duty in Iraq as a combat helicopter pilot.

But I thought Jerry might actually faint last week when I called him with an update on his candidate's latest piece of legislation. Clarke is running state Senator Bill Brady's gubernatorial campaign.

Brady's bill would undo a compromise worked out over two years to stop the practice of mass euthanasia of dogs and cats. The animals were often put into auto-exhaust gas chambers and killed en masse, sometimes allegedly by so-called "puppy mills" when the animals weren't sold. The gas chambers were deemed cruel because it could take as long as 30 minutes for the animals to die, and some even survived the ordeal.

Decisions made by a governor in a far-away but strikingly similar state might actually influence our election right here in Illinois.

Just a week or so after Governor Pat Quinn lays out his state budget blueprint next month, recently elected New Jersey governor Chris Christie will do the same.

Illinois and New Jersey have more in common than you might think. They're not exactly alike by any means, but they're both Democratic-leaning states that have elected Republican governors in the past. They both have unemployment troubles, although New Jersey is better off than us right now, and they both have horrible state-budget problems.

Illinois' budget crisis is somewhat worse than New Jersey's, but they're similar enough that the two governors' budget plans will undoubtedly be compared. Illinois' budget deficit for next fiscal year, which starts in July, is projected at somewhere around $13 billion. New Jersey's upcoming red-ink total will be about $11 billion. The two states' operating budgets are about the same size.