* Emil Jones is a Cub fan, but for once in somebody’s life that may be a good thing…

Emil Jones Jr., the head of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, told Crain’s Chicago Business this week that the agency is considering upping the amount the Sox pay in rent — currently $1.5 million annually.

“If you compare (lease terms) to other sports stadiums around the country, the Sox pay the lowest rent of all the facilities,” Jones told Crain’s. “It’s something we’ll be looking at.” […]

Questions about the lease payments come as the Sox prepare to open a new team store, and just a few months after the organization opened up the Bacardi at the Park restaurant — both built on state-owned land, Crain’s reported.

I’m a Sox fan, but I have no problem upping the team’s rent. That Bacardi at the Park restaurant did gangbuster business this year. It sits on taxpayer property, so the Sox ought to pay.

* And while this is being portrayed as sleazy, it’s pretty standard procedure for the opposition (ComEd/Exelon), and at least somebody is doing something for the state, unlike CME Group, which wants a huge tax break without offering up anything in return…

Tenaska Inc., the Omaha, Neb.-based company trying to win enough votes in the Legislature for its planned “clean coal” power plant in Downstate Taylorville, has agreed to set up a $30-million foundation providing scholarships to disadvantaged minority students if the bill passes.

It’s actually a million dollars a year, not $30 mil all at once, and the foundation won’t be set up until after the plant is online, not when the bill passes.

The obvious danger is that legislators will try to use this to supplement the much-maligned legislative scholarship program. And unlike that state program, the Tenaska scholarships could be hidden from the public.

* Speaking of the CME Group, some opposition from traders is developing to its big tax break…

After months of negotiations with Governor Pat Quinn and state legislators, the exchanges appear to have clinched a tax cut for electronic trades, which account for the bulk of their trading. […]

Just 11 percent of CME trading takes place on its two trading floors, one in Chicago and the other in New York. […]

Floor traders queried on Tuesday said the way the tax break is structured makes them nervous, because trading is already migrating away from open outcry and to the computer screen. If electronic trades get a tax break, they said, exchanges will have even less of a reason to promote face-to-face trading.

“It’s just another nail in the coffin for the floor,” said Chess Obermeier, a veteran corn options broker and trader at the Chicago Board of Trade. While nearly all CME futures are traded electronically, about 70 percent of options are still bought and sold on the trading floor. […]

“It’s not going to have a big impact on us but it keeps pushing the momentum away from the pit.” [Obermeier] said.

* Senate Republicans aren’t on board yet, either…

“We want to keep CME in Illinois, but we also want to keep small and medium-size business that are also suffering,” said Patty Schuh, spokeswoman for Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno.

Radogno is scheduled to meet with legislative leaders and Illinois’s Democratic Governor Pat Quinn later this week, “so that we can collectively fix the problems,” said Schuh.

It’s unclear what Cullerton will do next to push the bill through the General Assembly. The exchanges threatened to move key operations and perhaps thousands of jobs to a more tax-friendly state after the Illinois legislature in January raised the corporate income tax to 7%, from 4.8%.

Cullerton had expected executive committee approval on Tuesday and consideration by the full Senate on Wednesday.

And…

The bill also includes an extension of the state’s research and development tax credit for businesses, which is expiring. That addition will cost the state another $25 million to $30 million a year in tax revenue, bringing the bill’s total annual cost to the $90 million range.

The Republicans object to the way that provision was drafted as well, Schuh said.

* The dealio…

Mr. Cullerton’s office says the break would save CME $60 million and CBOE around $6 million. In addition, to lure Downstate votes, the measure also contains a clause that would revive the recently expired corporate tax break for research and development, costing another $25 million to $30 million or so.

And those figures could be low.

As I told you yesterday, the governor’s office says the figure is upwards of $100 million. Cullerton claims the governor’s office is wrong.

*** UPDATE *** Oops. I forgot to post this video of Gov. Quinn responding to a question about the CME proposal. He was noncommittal…

[ *** End Of Update *** ]

* And now, on to Sears…

The battle over the proposed 15-year extension of tax breaks to Sears Holdings Corp. continued to rage Tuesday, with School District 300 unveiling a proposal that would allow it to receive a bigger share of property tax revenue from the corporate development than currently under consideration.

The district now receives close to $3 million a year from the development, which it says is far short of the $14 million it would receive annually if the tax break expires and Sears stays put. The district is proposing a structure in which it would get about $12 million a year.

Under a plan being developed by Sen. Dan Kotowski, D-Park Ridge, it likely would get less, more in the neighborhood of $6 million.

More…

[Sen. Kotowski’s] three-pronged plan would charge Sears a penalty if it left the state and require the company to keep more than 4,000 jobs in the area (the current EDA agreement calls for 2,500, and the amendment to Senate Bill 540, 4,000). It also would make sure the school district would “at least get double the amount of money they are receiving” from the EDA, he said.

We’ll save the ComEd/Ameren bill for a separate post.

* Related…

* Tenaska plant to get another look from legislators

* Hoffman Estates confident in Sears fight despite D300’s Springfield visit