Saturday Night Update: No Bears Deal...Yet
Sen. Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago) speaks to reporters Saturday night at the State Capitol in Springfield.
After a day of little public progress on a Chicago Bears/megaprojects bill, the path to passage of a bill by Sunday night’s adjournment deadline seem to get even more complicated.
Following a private, two-plus hour meeting of the Senate Democratic caucus Saturday night, Sen. Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago), said the caucus has yet to reach a consensus on how to proceed with the controversial legislation.
But, Cunningham says he hopes some sort of bill can be filed Sunday and passed by the both chambers of the General Assembly sometime before the adjournment of the spring session.
Cunningham says the Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT, legislation agreed to by the Bears and Governor’s office does not have enough support to pass in the Senate.
“[There is] discomfort in the caucus with the Bears proposal regarding property tax breaks. We’re having a difficult time working through that,” Cunningham told reporters late Saturday night. “We are trying to devise a different approach.”
There had been reporting earlier in the week the Senate was considering scaling back the megaprojects bill to just a Bears-specific bill. Cunningham says that option has not been taken off the table.
In a new wrinkle, Cunningham said members from the city of Chicago are holding up the legislation trying to find a way to keep the Bears in the city, even though the team has ruled out remaining in the city.
“We have members of the Chicago caucus who would like to find some sort of path where the city of Chicago would also have the ability to compete for a [Bears] stadium,” Cunningham said. “The city has made it clear they would like to be considered for a new stadium, as well. We’d like to come up with some sort of proposal that would put them on an equal plane.”
There has been no discussion, Cunningham said, on the demand of some lawmakers that the Bears contribute to the about $500 million in outstanding debt from the 2002 renovation of Soldier Field. Sources have also said infrastructure funding talks have not taken place yet.
“We’re hopeful we’re close to coming to some sort of proposal we can put forward.”
