With just over 24 hours left in the legislative session, the Bears ‘megaprojects’ bill still does not have the votes to pass the Senate, according to bill sponsor Sen. Bill Cunningham.
Speaking late Saturday night in Springfield on the eve of the legislative session deadline, Cunningham said “the problem is it’s just very complicated.”
“We’re not really sure how many tax dollars that proposal would generate, so we don’t know what we’d be able to refund to taxpayers. So that’s what’s just made it really, really hard to figure out so we’ve tried to find an alternative,” Cunningham said.
Sources familiar with negotiations tell NBC Chicago there are alternative ideas being discussed that would give the Bears the “tax certainty” they’re seeking.
The deadline crunch comes after Illinois lawmakers have hit multiple hurdles over months of efforts to negotiate a deal that would set property taxes for the team at the former Arlington Park in suburban Arlington Heights.
GOP Senate leader John Curran of Lemont says he believes the only way forward is a much smaller bill that only pertains to the Chicago Bears’ planned development in Arlington Heights.
“I think that’s the only option at this point. This is too late in the session to do a statewide mega-projects bill where we don’t know what would be going in there,” Curran said.
A spokesperson for Governor JB Pritzker said he met privately on Saturday with Cunningham and House Sponsor Kam Buckner. Buckner told NBC 5 a Chicago-only ‘megaprojects’ bill would be a heavy lift in the house, something House Democrat Ann Williams of Chicago told NBC Chicago she’d be OK with.
“With the Bears comes a lot of economic development opportunity, a lot of potential revenue to the state, so I think we have to look carefully at making sure we keep those revenue streams in Illinois,” Williams said.
Parties involved in the legislation met Saturday to negotiate, though it appears a decision likely won’t be made until the 11th hour on the bill the Bears say they need to keep the team from moving to Hammond.
If no agreement on a Bears stadium deal is made, then a special session of the legislature could be called, but it would also raise the bar for finalizing an agreement.
