SPRINGFIELD — Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson arrived at the state Capitol on Wednesday with an ambitious agenda and three weeks before the General Assembly’s scheduled adjournment as he pressed lawmakers on a sweeping set of priorities — from pushing the state to increase a critical source of municipal revenue to making a last-ditch effort to keep the Chicago Bears from leaving the city.
Previous efforts by Johnson to get the support he seeks from Springfield have gotten middling results at best. But on his third visit as mayor to the state capital, Johnson met with an array of legislative leaders, including Democratic House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch of Hillside and members of the Black and Asian American caucuses, as he also attended a Latino Unity Day event on the southern end of town.
Flanked at meetings by his chief of staff, former state Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas, and other top aides, Johnson urged lawmakers to increase Chicago’s share of state revenue, advance several new city taxing authorities, and weigh in on legislation that could determine whether the Bears stay in Illinois at all.
The effort to somehow keep the Bears in Chicago appeared to be a last-minute gambit to forestall any legislation aimed at luring the charter NFL franchise to move to suburban Arlington Heights, as it also weighs whether to cross the border into Indiana. It also comes two years after a Johnson-backed plan to build a domed Bears stadium near Soldier Field fell flat in Springfield, with little public momentum since.
The situation has progressed without Chicago for so long that a few months ago, Gov. JB Pritzker expressed his belief that there’s “a common understanding” by most Illinois lawmakers that the team won’t be building a stadium in Chicago.
Despite the mountain of obstacles, Johnson maintained on Wednesday that staying in Chicago is the Bears’ best option.
“From Navy Pier to the Obama (Presidential) Center, this is an economic driver for the entire state,” Johnson said of the city. “We’re building a football stadium in the South Loop. It’s international football (with the) Chicago Fire. So we clearly can build in Chicago. There’s a benefit for all of us with the Bears remaining in Chicago.”
Johnson added that any legislation that is passed in Springfield regarding the Bears should ensure it “doesn’t come at the expense of taxpayers.”
“And right now, from what we’ve seen in the bill that is being now discussed in the state Senate, there are clearly some concerns there about whether or not working people will be protected or prioritized,” Johnson said.
Outside of the Bears issue, but central to Johnson’s fiscal pitch for help, is a fight over Local Government Distributive Funds, the slice of state income tax receipts distributed to municipalities. Pritzker’s budget proposal would hold those payments flat, which the Illinois Municipal League argues is a de facto cut, reducing the local share of total state income tax receipts from 6.47% to 6.28%. Before 2011, municipalities received 10%. According to figures Johnson presented to reporters earlier this week, Pritzker’s proposal cuts $12.7 million from Chicago. Johnson has said restoring the city’s share by 1 percentage point would generate $80 million.
“The governor’s proposal to cut the Local Government Distributive Fund is detrimental to not just the city of Chicago, but municipalities across the state,” Johnson said Wednesday. “And so we want to make sure that we’re capturing full revenue within the Local Government Distributive Fund, especially because at a time in which the federal government continues to erode and undermine the interest, the values of working people, we have to make sure that we’re investing in community safety, because for many municipalities, we rely upon the Local Government Distributive Fund to make those critical investments.”
Despite his emphasis, progress on restoring LGDF funding has been limited over the past 15 years, and Johnson acknowledged the difficulty of moving the needle with so little time remaining in the session.
Pritzker spokesperson Matt Hill said the governor’s budget proposal “holds local governments harmless, maintains the same income tax dollars as last year, and continues record levels of overall support” at a time when states like Illinois are facing a deprivation of federal funding from Republican President Donald Trump’s administration.
“Since 2019, the Governor has increased revenue sharing with local governments by nearly $1 billion — a 71% increase — and enacted more than $2.5 billion annually in additional ongoing resources through transportation funding, cannabis legalization, video gaming, casino expansion, and other measures,” Hill said in a statement. “The Governor has also given local municipalities greater authority to adopt local sales taxes without requiring voter referendums and eliminating certain state administrative fees on collections — giving communities greater flexibility and control over their fiscal future.”
Beyond LGDF, Johnson’s office is pursuing a range of new revenue measures. He wants a new statewide digital advertising tax by granting the authority to pass such levies, which have faced litigation on the East Coast and were proposed last year in Illinois before being dropped to clear the way for a $1.5 billion public transit overhaul.
Johnson’s office is also seeking authorization to close an amusement tax resale loophole worth up to $31 million; impose a $1 delivery fee on non-grocery, non-medication purchases that the city projects could raise $151 million; amend tobacco taxation rules; and establish a payroll expense tax on large businesses. The city is also backing progressive Democratic legislation to close tax loopholes and institute a billionaire wealth tax.
Also pressing was what Johnson called his desire to keep the Bears in Chicago, as the state Senate weighs the so-called megaprojects legislation that would incentivize the team to relocate to Arlington Heights.
The bill, which passed the House 78-32 last month, would allow the Bears to make special payments to local governments in lieu of higher property taxes as part of a bid to build a multibillion-dollar stadium. But the measure has run into complications in the Senate, including questions about whether its property tax relief component is workable for area school districts, residents and the team itself. The Bears are also weighing a move to Hammond after Indiana’s legislature passed a bill earlier this year aimed at luring the franchise across the state line.
But with the Bears not having to leave Chicago’s Soldier Field until their lease ends in 2033, Johnson said he doesn’t find the team’s threat to move to Indiana very credible.
“I think that this whole notion around Hammond, Indiana, the merit of that threat. I just call it into question,” he said. “The Bears do not like the bill. There are members (of) the Senate caucus, both sides of the aisle, that do not like the bill. So we have a bill that no one likes, that will give potentially property tax relief to a major corporation, and you have mayors here with very limited options in which we’re trying to find property tax relief for everyday people.”
State Rep. Theresa Mah, a Chicago Democrat, sat in on Wednesday’s meeting as they discussed the wide range of issues.
“We mostly heard from him about his perspectives on LGDF and, you know, his desire to keep the Bears in the city, and so you know some issues with the (megaprojects) bill,” she said. “Before that goes forward in the Senate, (that) there are certain issues that the city wanted to have the senators take a closer look at, making sure the city’s not left out in the discussions about things that benefit them.”
Mah laughed as she said she didn’t want to comment about whether she was “satisfied” with the meeting, but added, “I mean, so, we talked about a lot of things, including the need for progressive revenue.”
State Rep. Camille Lilly, a Chicago Democrat who also met with Johnson, said she welcomed the mayor’s focus on LGDF, though she acknowledged other mayors are making the same ask and stopped short of predicting success with three weeks left before the General Assembly’s scheduled adjournment.
As for the Bears, she said Johnson “understands all the discussions around the (megaprojects) and he’s willing to entertain those discussions.”
Senate Republican leader John Curran of Downers Grove, speaking at an unrelated news conference earlier in the day, said it was “great that the mayor is here” and repeated his standing message that “a strong Chicago is good for Illinois, but a strong Illinois is good for Chicago.”
But he was skeptical of Johnson’s revenue proposals.
“We need more robust job growth and economic investment in Chicago and some of the mayor’s requests would be the opposite, would further reduce economic investment in Chicago, reduce job growth,” Curran said. “It would be a step backwards not just for Chicago but for the state of Illinois.”
Johnson’s latest Springfield visit comes as his office’s lobbying efforts under the dome have been criticized by even legislative Democrats as ineffective.
Earlier this year, some lawmakers backed legislation that directly ran counter to his agenda, including a bill barring local governments statewide from levying a tax based on employee headcount and another prohibiting municipalities from taxing sports betting.
Asked whether it was important to visit Springfield earlier in the legislative session, Johnson bristled, challenging reporters to find out what time of year past mayors would come down to the state’s capital.
“This conversation about what time I come to Springfield, I think it’s quite frankly, I think it’s disingenuous,” he said. “As the mayor of the city of Chicago, my work does not start and stop in Springfield. We have regular conversations with the speaker of the House, who is a neighbor of mine. The Senate president, who is my state senator … the governor who lives in Chicago,” Johnson said. “These conversations happen constantly, and you also know that there’s a lot that can happen between now and May 31st.”
Chicago Tribune reporter Alice Yin contributed from Chicago.
