Bears exit from Chicago closer to reality as House mulls bill helping Arlington Heights bid

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois lawmakers inched closer to the red zone in keeping the Chicago Bears from crossing state borders into Indiana, with the Illinois House on Wednesday preparing to take up a measure that would give the NFL team property tax certainty while also providing some property tax relief for homeowners.

The megaproject proposal, which still needs approval from the Illinois Senate, 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. 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.

State Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, the lead sponsor on the measure, this week added a property tax relief sweetener to try to secure some bipartisan support and to squash the optics of billionaire owners getting a special deal. His latest proposal was approved by the House Revenue Committee by a 15-5 vote Wednesday afternoon.

The latest proposal would put 50% of special PILOT payments into a property tax relief fund that would then be split between 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 also 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.

Other changes include what Buckner called “accountability measures” requiring the developer and municipality to give a report to the Illinois General Assembly every five years. The latest language changed a sunset from five to seven years.

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.

Two Republican lawmakers — Rep. Martin McLaughlin, R-Barrington Hills, and Rep. Brad Stephens, R-Rosemont — voted to advance the measure. Other Republicans voted no, 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.

Buckner said he expects the measure to get the 60 Democratic votes needed to pass the House and advance to the Senate, which will return Tuesday after taking a week off.

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, said she is 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.”