The Chicago Bears push to build a new stadium in the suburbs of Arlington Heights, and the Governor of Illinois JB Pritzker was questioned on legislation that could help the project.
During the availability of the press on Monday, Pritzker said that his administration “still considers” a bill that would help bears and other companies to block in land reduction and other incentives to help move along the project proposed on the site of the former International Hippodrome of Arlington Park.
“This is something we still consider,” he said at an event at Advocate Health Care. “We are going to assess the costs for the inhabitants of Illinois, the advantages which come to attract companies due to the possibility of using these taxes.”
Pritzker referred to a bill known as the “payment instead of taxes” or pilot for short. A pilot bill, according to the National Council for non -profit organizations, enables companies to freeze the land tax reductions obtained to help facilitate a project. The Bears would then be authorized to negotiate an annual payment with local officials instead of a standard land tax payment.
According to Crain’s Chicago, a separate program would allow the Bears to draw from the income of the extended sales tax that the Arlington Heights project would generate.
Pritzker said the bill would benefit more than the Bears, which is why its administration would plan to sign it if it hit its office.
“I would simply say that there is a bill, it applies to much more than the Chicago bears. It is therefore not the Bears in Chicago. There are many places where there can be advantages for the pilot bill,” he said.
If the Bears are advancing with a new stadium project, season holders have had an overview of what it could look like.
During a Friday press conference, the president and chief executive officer of the Bears, Kevin Warren, said that the team could not go ahead with their stadium project without such a pilot bill in Springfield. According to the Daily Herald, a proposal in Springfield would allow Bears and other companies to lock their payments negotiated up to 40 years.
Pritzker told journalists that he would prefer that the Bears remain in the city of Chicago, but stressed that the team could do what it would like in terms of future house.
“Listen, I’m a fan of the Bears. I would like the Bears to stay in the city of Chicago. If they could, they are a private business. They can choose to do what they like with their business,” he said.
The governor also maintained his opposition to the supplies of additional financing of taxpayers for the project, claiming that the Bears had to continue to invest in the massive construction project.
“I do not think that the taxpayers of the Illinois state should support what is now a value of a value of eight billions of dollars and a half. They seem to be done,” he said.
Pritzker has not excluded the investment of state dollars in improving infrastructure around the proposed stadium site.
“And I do not think, you know, obviously all of us, we build roads for everyone, no matter who you are. You know, we support the business to come or to stay in the state of Illinois,” he said.
During this Friday press conference, Warren and President George McCaskey reiterated that the “only objective” of the Bears was on the construction of a new stadium in the suburbs of Arlington Heights.
Warren said weekly meetings take place between team leadership and village officials – and the team’s goal is to innovate by the end of 2025.
“We are still extremely concentrated on Arlington Heights, on the construction of our stadium there,” said the president and chief executive. “It’s the plan.”
Warren said that the team “firmly believes” Arlington Heights is the only place in Cook County which will allow the construction of a stadium with a fixed roof.
Before the press conference on Friday, the Bears published a statement to NBC Chicago in May, saying that they had “made significant progress with the leaders of Arlington Heights, and that I look forward to continuing to work with the leaders of the States and Local to make a project of transforming economic development for the region a reality.”
The press release reached after a spokesperson for the mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, said that the team’s executive leadership had “indicated that they intended to prioritize the development site located in the village of Arlington Heights”.
However, the spokesman said: “As the mayor said on several occasions, the door remains open in the city of Chicago.”
