With time slipping away and a midnight deadline approaching, Illinois lawmakers worked against the clock on Sunday to agree on a plan aimed at keeping the Chicago Bears from moving across state lines.
NBC Chicago’s Paris Schutz said what was discussions among Senate Democrats could accurately be described as a “Hail Mary.”
At around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, the Bears’ “megaprojects” bill senate sponsor, Sen. Bill Cunningham of Chicago, emerged from a meeting empty handed and revealed the bill did not have the votes to pass. So, the plan, which would have given the Bears the ability to pay a negotiated amount of fees to a municipality instead of the full amount of property taxes, effectively died.
The Bears said that such an agreement was an absolute must to construct a stadium in suburban Arlington Heights, but many lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle raised significant concerns. Chicago lawmakers questioned whether the Bears should be incentivized to leave Chicago, which they’ve called home since the early 1920s. Other lawmakers expressed concerns that locking in property tax rates could put the onus on other property owners within Cook County to pick up the slack in terms of school funding.
Progressive Chicago lawmakers that were the biggest holdouts – some of them spurred by opposition from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates.
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So on Sunday, legislative leaders were meeting furiously to craft their “plan B” – a municipally-owned public stadium authority; it would be specific to Cook County and allow municipalities to own the stadium – meaning Arlington Heights and Chicago could both establish a public stadium authority.
The Bears would pay all the costs of building the stadium – but would not own it, which means they would pay zero property taxes on it; that would be the “tax certainty” they’ve been asking for.
As of late Sunday afternoon, the specific language hadn’t been filed, but both Chicago Democrats and suburban Republicans sounded open to the new idea.
With the “megaprojects” bill effectively dead and lawmakers considering a new option – Arlington Heights Mayor Jim Tinaglia said, “I will always consider options but we’ve been pretty clear on private investments.”
Notably – the Bears hadn’t issued a response as of late Sunday afternoon – and Bears CEO Kevin Warren and Chairman George McCaskey have not been at the Illinois State Capitol this weekend.
The negotiations come as Indiana offers the Bears up to $1 billion in incentives to relocate to a site in Hammond. The Hammond location is situated just off the Skyway, basically across the street from Chicago’s Southeast Side. However, detractors said it’s too close to a superfund site and would be expensive to remediate.
However, Hammond’s Mayor Tom McDermott said: “the fact that Hammond continues to be mention in nearly every discussion shows Indiana remains a very credible alternative if Springfield cannot get a deal done before adjournment tonight.”
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