Bears Bill Faces Uphill Climb to Becoming Law
House Speaker Chris Welch
“This thing is a Christmas tree and it’s about to go up in flames Griswold style,” one Democratic lawmaker quipped late Tuesday night about the fate of the Chicago Bears “megaproject” bill, while referencing a legendary scene in the Chicago-set “Christmas Vacation” movie.
After a day of amendments, reports of a tense House Democratic caucus, Senate skepticism, and frustration from the Governor’s office, it appears the House may be farther from ever from getting the bill aimed at keeping the Bears in the state of Illinois from becoming law.
House Democrats met in a private caucus Tuesday afternoon to discuss a new amendment to the megaprojects bill, which included far more expansive language than the original legislation that passed a House committee in February.
The full amendment, filed late Tuesday night, can be found here.
The key provision, that the Bears, or other large development projects, could negotiate a property tax payment with local governments instead of a typical property tax bill, known as a “payment in lieu of taxes,” or PILOT.
But instead of those payments going to local schools, cities, and other taxing bodies, half of the payment would be directed to property tax relief. Roughly half would be for local taxpayers (Arlington Heights in the Bears case), and the other half would go into a state fund to reduce property taxes around the state.
“The thought process behind that is that if we’re going to give some property tax certainty and relief to the developers, then we need to be able to do the same thing for the folks who pay property taxes, homeowners,” Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago), the sponsor of the legislation, told reporters Tuesday afternoon.
The legislation includes numerous new provisions ranging from banning data centers from using the “megaprojects” legislation to a downtown Springfield economic development plan.
The bill also includes a STAR Bond proposal for the “One Central” rail project near Soldier Field but does not address how to handle the roughly $500 million in debt remaining from the Soldier Field renovation in 2002. Infrastructure around the Arlington Heights site also has yet to be addressed.
Sources say neither the Governor’s office or Senate were briefed on the changes to the bill.
Senate President Don Harmon was already skeptical of the bill when asked last week, saying residential property tax relief should be a priority before a Bears bill.
Buckner told reporters he’s hopeful the bill can get through the House this week, but multiple House Democrats told The Illinoize they still aren’t sure if they can reach the 60 vote threshold Democrats have set for themselves to pass legislation in the chamber. Republicans haven’t been included in further talks since last week, we’re told, and aren’t expected to put more than a “handful” of votes on the bill.
The bill was scheduled to be heard in the House Revenue committee Wednesday afternoon.
