SPRINGFIELD — Illinois lawmakers inched closer to the red zone in keeping the Chicago Bears from crossing state lines into Indiana, with the Illinois House on Wednesday green-lighting a measure that would give the NFL team property tax certainty while also providing some property tax relief for homeowners.
The House voted 78-32 to approve the megaproject proposal, which still needs approval from the Illinois Senate. It would incentivize the Bears to build a domed stadium in Arlington Heights by negotiating payments in lieu of property taxes, known as PILOT, based on assessments. It also directs those funds toward property tax relief for homeowners — both near the megaproject and throughout Illinois.
The bill represents the first major legislative step toward ensuring the Bears stay in Illinois in a months-long tug of war between Illinois and the Hoosier state. The thorny details of infrastructure funding for Arlington Heights — which are likely to include help for Chicago — must still be dealt with before lawmakers adjourn from the spring session next month.
“This bill says Illinois is not going to sit back and watch other states build the future while we argue over yesterday’s tools,” said State Rep. Kam Buckner, chief sponsor of the measure. “This bill gives us the chance to compete and not compete recklessly, not compete desperately, not compete by giving away the store.”
During the House debate, State Rep. Patrick Windhorst, R-Metropolis, asked Buckner directly whether Gov. JB Pritzker’s office is on board with the bill, and if it would ensure the Bears stay in Illinois.
“I don’t work for the Bears, so I can’t answer that question specifically, but what I can tell you, Leader Windhorst, is that this bill puts together the mechanism that makes it possible for the Bears to stay here in the state,” Buckner said. “I think that for… their own internal conversations, there needs to be more conversation about infrastructure and other things.”
Pritzker’s office called the House vote “an important step,” adding, “Governor Pritzker has been clear and consistent for years that the Bears should remain in Illinois, and that any legislation needs to protect taxpayers.”
Buckner this week added a property tax relief sweetener to try to secure some bipartisan support and to eliminate the optics of billionaire owners getting a special deal.
The latest proposal would put 50% of special PILOT payments into a property tax relief fund that would then be divided 60% toward property tax rebates for homeowners in the district where the megaproject is located, and 40% into the Illinois Property Tax Relief Fund. Buckner, before a House panel Wednesday, called the provision the piece he “is most proud of.”
“This is not a tax holiday,” Buckner said. “The project still pays property taxes on a frozen basis, and it must also make a negotiated special payment.”
The project must invest at least $100 million in eligible costs to qualify — and the megaproject developer must enter into an incentive agreement with the local municipality, a project labor agreement with a goal of putting 20% or more of project-related contracts to minority-owned businesses and having the company’s CEO consider the economic benefits the project brings to underserved communities.
A local review board would be created with members of the local taxing bodies, like school districts and others, to decide the amount of the special payment from the developers on a weighted vote.
Buckner said language was added to exclude data centers from the legislation after lawmakers expressed concerns.
Buckner has emphasized that while the Bears have received all the attention on the legislation, the proposal is intended to help the state go head to head with states like Michigan, Ohio and Texas, which have enacted megaproject legislation of their own.
“This is about making Illinois competitive, but in a way that keeps people in the center and focus of this,” Buckner said. “Just because someone builds a bridge and someone is the first person to cross that bridge, doesn’t mean that bridge is built for them.”
The proposal would also bar state and local elected officials from receiving discounted tickets to stadium events connected to a megaproject — and bars all state officials, local officials and their representatives from working for any megaproject certificate holder if they personally and substantially participated in negotiation of the megaproject agreement.
The Bears issued a statement welcoming “the progress made on the House’s version of the mega project bill; however, additional amendments are necessary to make the Arlington Heights site feasible for our stadium project. We support Illinois leaders as they determine the path forward to making the essential changes to the mega project bill and aligning on infrastructure funding.”
Republicans, for the most part, voted against the measure, saying it would inadvertently raise taxes for property owners in other taxing districts that overlap with Arlington Heights but don’t actually include the site of the stadium project. Nine Republicans, however, broke rank and voted for the bill. Five Democrats voted against it.
Marty McLaughlin, R-Barrington Hills, during House floor debate, had urged his GOP colleagues to join him in moving the plan forward, saying the longer lawmakers wait, the more expensive it will be to build the stadium.
“One thing I do know is my friends on the other side of the aisle and the governor certainly cannot afford for the Bears to leave the state of Illinois,” McLaughlin said. “Let’s face it, guys, it’s going to happen, and the longer we wait, I can’t watch billions of dollars more in incentives be thrown away.”
In a statement, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, offered little on what he thinks of the latest proposal, saying there are “ongoing conversations, and the Senate would certainly review any legislation the House sends over.”
Local school districts and school groups have long raised concerns on property tax valuations around the stadium site. Illinois Federation of Teachers President Stacy Davis Gates, in a memo obtained by WBEZ, says they are pleased with a change in the proposal that ensures school districts won’t get less money than what they would get in the first year of the project. But Gates, who also heads up the Chicago Teachers Union, said the plan doesn’t do enough to fund local public schools.
“We don’t believe it sufficiently captures the new property value of these developments,” Gates said, “so schools don’t get as much new revenue as we believe they’ll need.”