The Bears want a new stadium. Illinois doesn’t want to give it to them
· Yahoo Sports
The Illinois legislature passed a new $55.9 billion budget late on Sunday night ahead of a midnight deadline. But that budget did not contain a provision for a new stadium for the Chicago Bears, despite a final-minute push from the Illinois Senate to try and keep the team in the state.
As a result, the future of the Bears in Illinois remains in doubt.
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Following the midnight deadline, the Illinois Senate approved a modified budget bill by a vote of 37-17, which contains a provision allowing certain municipalities to create local stadium authorities. That modified bill passed around 4:00 a.m. local time Monday morning, breathing new life into the effort to keep the Bears in Illinois, at least for a moment, at a proposed new site in Arlington Heights.
The foundation of this new proposal is a publicly owned stadium, similar to the proposal being advanced in Indiana. The Bears would finance the construction of a new stadium, but then turn the stadium over to a new municipal stadium authority, which would lease the stadium. Under this framework, no property taxes would be paid on the stadium, giving the Bears a major component that the team is seeking in a new stadium site.
The Senate bill also establishes a special Bond District for retail and entertainment development near the potential site in Arlington Heights, allowing anticipated growth in sales taxes to help fund the project.
But the Illinois House did not take up a vote on the modified bill, and the legislative session came to an end. As of Monday morning, there is no indication that a special session would be called to bring the legislators back into session to take up the modified bill.
“There’s a lot of work still ahead of us,” said House Speaker Emmanuel Welch. “We’ll continue discussions on a number of issues, including our approach to the Bears stadium question, this summer.”
According to several reports, “[i]nternal polling of the supermajority House Democratic caucus indicated the measure didn’t have the votes to pass.”
The developments come in the wake of a strong push from Indiana lawmakers to lure the Bears to Hammond, in Northwest Indiana. The proposed stadium site sits just across the Illinois border, roughly 25 miles from the team’s current Soldier Field home.
The Indiana Senate voted 45-4 back in February to approve the establishment of a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority in Hammond, along with increased county taxes for the project. Indiana officials have stated that approximately $1 billion in tax revenue from those increases would fund the stadium infrastructure.
Indiana Governor Mike Braun signed that measure into law less than an hour after it was passed.
Critics of the potential move to Indiana have highlighted the fact that the proposed stadium site is located near several hazardous waste sites, including a Superfund site at the former Federal Metals smelting facility. According to this report last month, “where elevated levels of lead and arsenic were found” at the site.
Returning to Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker released a statement through his office, following the developments in the Illinois legislature.
“Governor Pritzker is a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars who has always wanted the Bears to remain in Illinois and been open to a sensible deal, so the Governor’s Office needs to carefully review this new bill that was recently made public overnight,” read the statement.
Illinois State Senator Bill Cunningham, the sponsor of the stadium authority bill that cleared the Illinois Senate, expressed some hesitation that his bill would eventually be signed into law.
“I have talked to all of them,” said Cunningham. “I can’t tell you that they said they were supportive of it. They said they were interested to see the language [of the bill].”
Unless a special session is called, the Illinois legislature will not reconvene until November.
As for the Bears, the team released a statement overnight as well.
“We will finalize our evaluation of both Arlington Heights and Hammond, and remain on the late spring/early summer timeline that we have previously communicated,” according to a Bears team statement. “We will provide an update when we have a decision to share.”