* WSIL TV…

Illinois House Republicans presented their 2020 legislative agenda Tuesday. Their main areas of focus are property tax relief, legislative redistricting and ethics reform.

House Minority Leader Jim Durkin says “these are interesting times” as Democrats have worked with Republicans on a balanced budget and pro-business laws. He says work on property taxes and fair maps should continue with bipartisan efforts. […]

Rep. Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville) says Democrats should work with their colleagues across the aisle to hold themselves accountable.

“Let’s move these pieces of legislation - revolving door prohibition, no lobbyist legislators, and expanding the statement of economic interest to the level of judges,” Wehrli said. “These are things that we all agree upon, bipartisan support. Let’s get them done.”

* Center Square…

Illinois lawmakers want to allow for abused cats and dogs to have legal representation in court.

Proposed legislation filed by State Rep. Allen Skillicorn, R-East Dundee, would have the Illinois Department of Natural Resources create a county-by-county database of legal professionals, from lawyers to paralegals to experts on animal abuse, willing to step in on a dog or cat’s behalf when a person is facing punishment for neglecting or abusing them.

“You have abusers of animals that effectively get off with little to no punishment,” Skillicorn said. “No one’s really looking out for animals that could be physically abused.”

The bill is limited to dogs and cats. The motion to appoint a special legal aid for the animal may be made by any party in the court.

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[Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield], along with state Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, introduced legislation to create a compact among states so that member states won’t offer tax breaks to companies in exchange for corporate investment.

“If we’re going to claim that small businesses are the engine of our economy, we need to give them the level playing field to succeed,” Villivalam said.

So far, seven other states have introduced similar legislation. New York Assemblyman Ron T. Kim introduced legislation in that state in October 2019. In Florida, state Sen. Anna Eskamani filed the “Interstate Compact Agreement to Phase Out Corporate Giveaways” Act last month. Republican State Rep. Bill Plett of New Hampshire filed House Bill 1132, which was scheduled to be heard in committee Tuesday. Senate Bill 121 was filed in West Virginia earlier this month, with Iowa and Maryland following suit. […]

Kansas and Missouri enacted a truce via executive orders that they would not offer each other’s businesses tax incentives to get them to cross the border.

The Illinois bill is structured in a way that would not mean Illinois would be alone in ending the use of incentives to attract businesses, Morgan said. It would only take effect when both states have enacted the legislation. It wouldn’t end the practice of giving out incentives for businesses already in Illinois either.

More from Capitol News Illinois…

Senate Bill 2502 and House Bill 4138 would enter Illinois into the Phase Out Corporate Giveaways Interstate Compact. That would involve an agreement not to use tax incentives or grants to lure a specific company away from any other compact member for the purposes of relocating a corporate headquarters, manufacturing facility, office space or other retail development.

That prohibition, however, would not apply to tax incentives that are available generally to all businesses such as workforce development grants. It also would not apply to company-specific incentives offered by local governments or incentives offered to companies already located in Illinois.

The bills also call for establishing a national board that would make recommendations about how to phase out other kinds of corporate incentives.

Although the initiative is being sponsored by two Democrats, it also has the backing of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, which was founded in 2004 by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.