Some northwest Indiana leaders say that Illinois has fumbled its chances of keeping the Chicago Bears from crossing the state line.
Illinois legislators adjourned their spring session in the pre-dawn hours Monday without reaching agreement on proposals aimed at keeping the Bears from picking a site in Hammond for the team’s planned new domed stadium.
“I think Illinois is out of the picture,” Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott told the Indiana Capital Chronicle on Monday. “I do. I do.”
The public could soon see how serious the the National Football League team is about the Hammond location after the Illinois Legislature failed to counter Indiana’s taxpayer-funded incentive offer.
Bears officials said in a terse statement Monday that the stadium options remain team-owned property in the northwestern Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights and the Hammond site.
“We will finalize our evaluation of both Arlington Heights and Hammond, and remain on the late spring/early summer timeline that we have previously communicated,” the team said. “We will provide an update when we have a decision to share.”
Indiana offer directs $1 billion toward project
State Rep. Earl Harris of East Chicago, a co-sponsor of Indiana’s incentive package, said he was more optimistic of Hammond becoming the Bears’ choice.
Chicago Bears call Indiana deal ‘step forward’ for building new stadium in Hammond
“We, before session ended, put together a great piece of legislation and a great situation for drawing the Bears over,” Harris said in an interview. “The Illinois side, they obviously extended things, and even with extending things until Sunday night slash early Monday morning, they still didn’t get anything done. I think that bodes well for us.”
The Indiana offer — approved by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Mike Braun in late February — would create a Hammond stadium district and direct about $1 billion in taxpayer money toward district infrastructure.
As the stadium district would legally own the Hammond stadium, the Bears would not pay property taxes. The team has estimated a potential $100 million annually in property taxes for the Arlington Heights site, so Bears officials have sought over several years a deal with Illinois officials to cut that bill.
Illinois lawmakers unable to reach agreement
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has supported a plan allowing developers of so-called “megaprojects” to negotiate their property tax bills under a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with local governments.
Illinois House members endorsed such a proposal in April, but faced opposition in the Illinois Senate over the impact of local property tax revenue and from Chicago legislators wary of incentivizing the Bears’ exit from the city, Capital News Illinois reported.
A revised plan backed by the Illinois Senate early Monday would have enabled Chicago or Arlington Heights to create local stadium authorities that could own and finance professional sports stadiums.
After months of Illinois lawmakers touting the megaprojects approach versus stadium deals of the past, Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, the bill’s sponsor, acknowledged that his new proposal “is the exact same mechanic set up in Northwest Indiana.”
Illinois House members adjourned without taking a vote on that bill — and state legislators are not scheduled to meet again until October.
Pritzker said during a Monday news conference that talks would continue with the Bears.
“The reality is, I wasn’t willing to give up billions of dollars of taxpayer money in order to give it to a billionaire-owned … team and believe, very much, that the incentives that we provide for businesses ought to be similar to the incentives we provide to this type of business, as much of an emotional connection as many of us have to the Bears and to keeping them in the city of Chicago or in the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said.
Other Indiana officials did not immediately reply Monday to requests for comment, including the governor’s office and House Speaker Todd Huston, who was the lead sponsor of Indiana’s stadium bill.
Hammond’s mayor, meanwhile, said he was optimistic of hearing a “yes” from the Bears within the next month.
“I don’t think the Bears are bluffing,” McDermott said. “Indiana’s got the only offer on the table. Illinois has had three and a half years to deal with this, and then they missed their own deadline yesterday.”
Hammond mayor cites Illinois “dysfunction”
McDermott, a Democrat, praised the cooperation of the Republican leaders in the Statehouse for moving quickly to arrange the Indiana proposal earlier this year.
He called Bears officials “good poker players” in not revealing where they stand as he’s tried to sell the team on making the move.
“They’re going to save millions of dollars every year operating over here in Indiana,” McDermott said. “I’m just reminding them that all this dysfunction that they see on the other side of the border is not how we do business in Indiana, so that’s the best thing at this point. We’ve done everything we could do.”
The Indiana financing plan calls for capturing state taxes from a new stadium development district, along with revenue from a 12% admissions tax on stadium events, a doubling of the current 5% hotel tax in Lake County (where Hammond is located) and a 1% food-and-beverage tax in both Lake and Porter counties.
Money for stadium-related work could also come from a $700 million payment from the Indiana Toll Road’s private operator to the state under an agreement reached in April allowing highway toll hikes on all vehicles by at least 1.5% twice a year. That money is going into a fund for infrastructure projects in seven counties across northern Indiana, including Lake County.
Both McDermott and Harris said they believed most area residents were excited about the opportunity of landing the Bears stadium and would be supportive of the tax increases.
“It’s going to be people coming in from outside that stay at the hotels that pay the innkeepers (tax), and then the fee that goes along with when you attend events,” Harris said. “So it’s not as if, as a northwest Indiana resident, I, and everyone, will just receive a tax increase. It’s going to be you choosing to do things that you may have to pay a small amount for. So that makes it a lot easier for people to digest.”
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