The Chicago Bears say they’re primarily focused on sites in northwest Indiana for a possible stadium, but Gov. JB Pritzker says Illinois shouldn’t be ruled out.
This week, Pritzker said he’d be open to calling a special session of the General Assembly to address the stadium project, but only if the Bears and Illinois lawmakers can reach a workable deal prior to that session taking place.
On Tuesday, Pritzker said the ball is in the Bears’ court.
“It’s up to the Bears to make a decision about where they want to be,” he said.
Pritzker said the Bears need to have more conversations with lawmakers who balked at the idea of giving funding to the team for infrastructure, as well as those opposed to giving the Bears lower property tax rates to incentivize them to move to suburban Arlington Heights.
“They need to begin conversations with members of the legislature that they weren’t able to win over before,” he said.
The governor also argued the state is still well-positioned to make a stadium project happen, and pushed back on the idea that Indiana is in the lead after their legislature passed a bill aimed at luring the Bears to the Hoosier State.
“We don’t want to raise taxes on the people of Illinois. We have offered infrastructure support, which is actually most of what the Bears have been asking for. We think we’re as close as anybody to getting a stadium done here. I don’t think Indiana is a whole heck of a lot closer than we are,” he said.
Indiana lawmakers passed a bill aimed at encouraging the Bears to build a stadium in the Hammond area. The funding for projects related to the stadium would come from the Bears themselves, along with funding from the state of Indiana for infrastructure and other needs around the project. Notably, the bill would also exempt the Bears from property taxes on the project.
In Illinois, the Bears have been seeking a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) bill from the state legislature to lock in more favorable property tax rates, and they have also sought funding for infrastructure improvements around the proposed stadium site at the location of the former Arlington International Racecourse.
The Bears had previously said they wanted to make a decision by early summer on their future home, but there has been no definitive timetable established by the team to make that final call and to get shovels in the ground.
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