Last year, state Senate Republicans tested anti-tax messages in their campaigns without much success. While almost all Senate Democrats had voted for a large income-tax hike along with an expansion of the sales tax to services, the Republican message just didn't work because the tax bill the Democrats backed never became the law of the land.

But now that a tax increase has actually been approved, with all the resulting hype surrounding it, there could very well be a different outcome next year. The tax increase has become a part of the public consciousness, and not in a good way, either.

Way back in 1981, Governor Jim Thompson got into a fight with the Illinois General Assembly over who should fund the salaries of county state's attorneys.

By law, Illinois was on the hook for two-thirds of those salaries. Thompson originally proposed paying all of the state's share, then decided that locals should pick up the tab and not the state. The General Assembly negotiated a deal with the governor to pay 80 percent of the required funding. But Thompson turned around and vetoed the entire appropriation.

The state's attorneys all of a sudden weren't getting a paycheck and threatened to sue, county governments were enraged at having this financial hardship dumped on them, and the General Assembly worked itself into an uproar over Thompson's decision to break their deal.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Thompson made an unprecedented move and simply declared that he'd "unvetoed" the appropriation. Democratic Comptroller Roland Burris announced that he would recognize the "unveto" as legitimate and go ahead and pay the state's attorney salaries.

Redistricting is a time for stock-taking, for looking back and looking ahead.

State legislators who've been around a while are suddenly faced with the often stark reality of signing on for another 10 years. They add a decade to their current age and wonder if they want to be in the game that much longer.

Some decide to stick with it for just one more election so they can make extra sure their party holds their seat.

Some decide to retire right away, figuring their party has drawn the map solidly enough to ensure a suitable replacement.

Legislators in the minority party are far more likely to be mapped in with fellow party members and then discover that they don't want to face the prospect of running in a primary, so they retire.

Others decide to use the opportunity to move up the political ladder. The congressional districts were redrawn, which gave state Senator Dave Koehler (D-Peoria) a possible opening. He took it.

If history is any guide, we're likely to see a raft of retirement announcements in the next few days, weeks, months and even years.

There are lots of different angles to Governor Pat Quinn's highly controversial decision to unilaterally refuse to pay scheduled, contractual pay raises to unionized state employees, so let's take them one at a time.

• This is Not "New" News. Chicago reporters are the only ones with access to the governor these days. (Quinn has held just one Springfield press conference in months.) The city's reporters probably don't know that the House Republicans - and even some House Democrats - have been agitating since at least April to somehow stop AFSCME's scheduled pay raises.