SPRINGFIELD — A key state lawmaker on Wednesday introduced a new version of a proposal that would help the Chicago Bears build a new stadium in Arlington Heights, an attempt to gather enough support from fellow Illinois House Democrats to advance a plan to keep the team from possibly relocating to Indiana.
State Rep. Kam Buckner of Chicago, who has led House Democrats’ stadium negotiations, revised his earlier proposal for special property tax treatment for so-called megaprojects, changing how payments from the Bears and other developers would be divvied up. The amended plan still requires developers such as the Bears to negotiate with local governments over payments in lieu of regular property taxes based on assessments, but would now direct a share of those payments toward property tax relief for homeowners, both in the immediate area and across the state.
A committee hearing on the latest proposal was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Buckner, who represents an area that includes the Bears’ current home at Soldier Field, said a main objective was to ensure residents benefit from a plan primarily geared toward helping multibillion-dollar businesses like the Bears build megadevelopments.
Chicagoans want to see Bears move to Arlington Heights — not Indiana, a Suffolk-Tribune poll says
To that end, the legislation would require a municipality that hosts a megaproject to deposit half of the negotiated special payment into a locally held property tax relief fund. From there, 60% of the money would be used for property tax rebates for homeowners in areas where the megaproject is located, while 40% would be deposited into a statewide property tax relief fund.
As in a previous version that Buckner introduced in February — a day before Republican Gov. Mike Braun of Indiana signed a measure intended to woo the Bears across the state line — Wednesday’s proposal includes the creation of a local review board consisting of members of the local taxing bodies, such as school districts and others, that would decide the amount of the special payment from megaproject developers through a weighted vote. But the new proposal is meant to give the review board more latitude to negotiate as well, Buckner said.
Speaking to reporters after a closed-door statehouse meeting with other House Democrats on Tuesday, Buckner addressed whether school districts or other taxing bodies in the Arlington Heights area would be concerned about the new property tax relief provision.
“We’ve been in lockstep with the Bears and with the other folks who are looking to use this development tool. I don’t see this, and to this point, they have not told us that this blows up what they’re trying to do,” Buckner said of the local school districts, before his new legislation was filed.
But he said there was a possibility that his proposal would change “the complexion of negotiations.”
“My caucus has made it very clear that there has to be something in this for people. And so, I think those are conversations that people are willing to have and to figure out how we move forward,” Buckner said Tuesday. “I know the focus is on the Bears and Arlington Heights, but I think if you look at the companies and the developers around the state who might be willing to use this, having a very stable flow of resources back to the people, I think, will be important to the local review boards, to mayors, to managers, to school districts, to mosquito abatement boards, to police and fire districts, all of those things that are part of our public services.”
Gov. JB Pritzker’s office said Wednesday it was reviewing the new legislation but declined to elaborate. Representatives for the Bears and the school districts in the Arlington Heights area could not immediately be reached for comment. A spokesperson for the Illinois Senate, which would be tasked with considering the legislation next week if the House passes it this week, did not immediately comment on the new legislation.
The Illinois Federation of Teachers, headed by Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates, previously raised concerns about the bill and its potential impact on taxpayers, who fund public education. On Wednesday, Davis Gates sent a memo to the statewide union’s executive board saying leadership is concerned the legislation “does not go far enough to get schools what they need.”
“We requested as part of our discussions that schools not only see no reduction in funding should a megaproject go forward but that they are able to capture the growth in the value of the new development,” Gates said in the memo. “The bill indeed includes a ‘hold harmless’ provision that sets a funding floor. But as drafted, we don’t believe it sufficiently captures the new property value of these developments, so schools don’t get as much new revenue as we believe they’ll need.”
Buckner’s proposal also calls for freezes on property taxes on the redeveloped rail yard land at its pre-development assessed value for 40 years, with special payments substituted in place of taxes on the new value. This provision is intended to make it easier for economic development to occur next to railroad tracks or yards.
Buckner said such property needs further remediation for development projects, and he believes certain swaths of land in Chicago would qualify for this under the bill. These include an area of the city known as The 78, which sits south of Roosevelt Road and the downtown area; an area of the South Side at the site of the old Michael Reese Hospital (a site the Bears had reportedly previously considered for a new stadium); and an area just west of the Soldier Field known as One Central, which would be a $20 billion mixed-use, transit-oriented development built on about 34 acres.
“What also is true is that when you look at the possible merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern (Railroads),” Buckner said, “I think some of their intermodal facilities are going to go dark because that’s what happens when railroads merge, and so that really means (a bunch) of land in and around Chicago and Cook County that we’ll not really be able to use unless there is a special incentive.”
While such a provision could benefit Chicago residents, it remains unclear how the outstanding debt of about $470 million for the 2003 Soldier Field renovation would be resolved.
The moves in Springfield come as Indiana lawmakers earlier this year authorized the construction of a new stadium in Hammond to try to attract the Bears to play their home games across the border. Under that deal, the Bears would play and get revenue from operating the facility.
Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, a Hillside Democrat, typically requires 60 members of his caucus to back legislation in private before bringing it to the House floor — a threshold that has proven difficult to clear given how many Democrats represent Chicago districts with little appetite for incentivizing the Bears to leave the city.
Other provisions of the new legislation require developers and municipalities to check in with the Illinois General Assembly every five years on what’s working and what’s not working with the megaprojects. In addition, data centers, which have contributed to residents’ skyrocketing electric bills, would not be eligible for incentives, according to the legislation.
The legislation also bars state or local officials from knowingly accepting a free or discounted ticket to a Bears game or other sporting event at a stadium built as part of a megaproject, “unless the free or discounted ticket is given or sold as part of a promotion generally available to the public on the same terms as generally available to the public.”
Chicago Tribune’s Robert McCoppin contributed.
