“We’re almost there” on a Bears stadium bill, Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, told some sports radio hosts on a Friday morning before the House returned to Springfield for three days of session last week. “We’re very close.”
Asked if the rumor spread by sports business pundit Marc Ganis earlier that week was true about House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch holding up the Bears bill, Buckner, the House’s point person on the state megaprojects bill that includes the Arlington Heights Bears stadium complex, flatly denied it.
“I want to be very unequivocal and clear about this: Nothing can be further from the truth,” Buckner said on WSCR Radio. Welch, he said, “has given me the green light as his representative in these conversations to bring this home, and we’re doing that.”
Buckner accused Ganis, who is widely quoted in sports media on NFL stadium plans, of “a willful mischaracterization. It’s a bad faith interpretation of the facts. It’s not analysis. It’s fabrication with confidence. … It’s a convenient fiction dressed up as expertise. It’s not helpful, and it’s not true.”
Ouch.
A few days later, Buckner told the Chicago Sun-Times that he was working on a property tax relief mechanism within the megaprojects bill, but wasn’t sure what form it would take.
Gov. JB Pritzker’s top staff seemed taken by surprise. An agreement had been made not to alter the deal that had already been cut with the Bears. The object was to figure out a way to attract enough votes to get it to the Senate and reassure the Bears that things were on track.
The next day, I was able to obtain an advance copy of Buckner’s bill and posted it on my website, CapitolFax.com. While Buckner had told reporters that he’d been working “lockstep” with the governor’s top staff, Pritzker’s office released a terse statement saying, “The Governor’s Office is currently reviewing the draft amendment provided by Capitol Fax and does not have comment at this time.”
The new property tax component would take half of the money that the Bears or other megaproject developers would pay in lieu of property taxes, give some to area local governments for property tax rebates, and then give the rest to the state’s property tax relief fund.
But that would mean the Bears’ payment might have to be doubled, because Arlington Heights-area schools and other local governments would see their negotiated payment cut in half. A top source close to Arlington Heights schools said that if the Bears had to pay $400 million instead of $200 million, “That’s a Bears problem,” not theirs.
And despite some comments made last week, it really wouldn’t produce significant statewide property tax relief. Two years ago, Illinoisans paid $40 billion in property taxes.
A proposed state constitutional amendment to levy a 3% surcharge on annual personal income over a million dollars, would’ve thrown big bucks at schools and provided a significant amount for property tax relief. But moderate Democrats and some others refused to support it, and the proposal went nowhere.
The Senate Democrats were also not made aware of the House’s changes in advance, and they weren’t happy about it.
And then there was another problem. The House bill would impose a 9% entertainment tax on the area surrounding the future stadium. Everything from pickleball to pinball to zip line courses and music venues would be taxed.
Pritzker told reporters Friday that the amusement tax was something the Bears “were hoping not to see in a bill like this” from the very outset. The Bears would only say that “essential” changes needed to be made to the bill in the Senate.
Whatever the case, Buckner was able to do what he set out to do: Find enough votes to pass a bill through the House.
Buckner’s proposal— House Bill 910 — received 78 votes, including nine Republicans. Speaker Welch was downright jubilant during a resulting news conference, perhaps relishing his ability to prove doubters and others like Ganis wrong.
“It’s a good night for people all over the state of Illinois because House Democrats deliver,” Welch said. “House Democrats did the work. They believed in the mantra ‘Winners do the work.’ And I want to tell you, we did the work.”
But there’s still a lot of work to do in the Senate. And then it has to come back to the House after changes are made.
Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.