CHICAGO (WLS) — Illinois Governor JB Pritzker expressed confidence on Friday regarding the potential passage of a significant legislative bill aimed at retaining the Chicago Bears within the state.
However, time is running short, with the legislative session concluding on May 31, leaving just over a week to secure the necessary support. One Chicago lawmaker has expressed skepticism about the bill’s prospects.
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As the Illinois Senate takes a break for the holiday weekend, lawmakers are not scheduled to reconvene until Monday afternoon. The proposed legislation, which would facilitate the Bears’ potential relocation to Arlington Heights, remains under discussion.
The Bears are entering the final phase of this legislative session without a definitive strategy from the Illinois Senate on advancing the mega projects bill.
Senators are still negotiating the bill’s specifics, which would grant the Bears long-term property tax incentives for constructing a self-funded stadium in Arlington Heights. The team’s alternative option is a location near Wolf Lake in Hammond, Indiana, as they reiterated on Thursday that Chicago lacks viable options.
“We essentially face two options: Do we want to keep them in Illinois, or see them move to Indiana? Personally, I’d prefer they stay in Illinois,” stated Pritzker.
But some members of the Chicago delegation still are not buying the Bears’ stance, believing that the industrial site in Hammond is not a serious option.
“But honestly, this looks like the bluff of the century to me, and the idea that the NFL is going to have two teams in Indiana and not one in Chicago… I think it’s an insult to folks’ intelligence,” said Illinois state Sen. Willie Preston, D-Chicago and southwest suburbs.
Preston, who chairs the Senate Black Caucus, says opposition to the mega projects bill is not just from Chicago lawmakers who do not want to see the Bears leave the lakefront. Many others have reservations, too.
“They’re very concerned about the mega projects bill that would use resources to support a private business while so many people in the state of Illinois, property taxpayers, are struggling and hurt,” Preston said.
Pritzker remains optimistic that lawmakers will pass a bill that allows for the handoff to Arlington Heights, but so far, he has not started calling holdouts into his office for conversations.
“I don’t think any of the legislators are, you know, are unclear about what my position is. I want a business in the state of Illinois to stay in the state of Illinois and not move to another state,” Pritzker said.
The clock runs out on the legislative session on Sunday, May 31, and with many other big-ticket items still on the agenda, including the budget, lawmakers will need to move quickly while the Bears and the NFL wait on the sidelines.
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