* Daily Herald…
The state Senate’s Democratic Assistant Majority Leader, Laura Murphy of Des Plaines, explained why negotiations with the Bears are complex.
She said the team suggested the state fund parking structures to support a stadium campus in Arlington Heights — with the provision the Bears keep parking revenue to support business operations.
“That’s a non-starter,” Murphy said, emphasizing the public investment should be compensated. […]
Murphy also addressed criticisms of the current House bill by stating, “We’ll fix it in the Senate.”
Oof.
- Demoralized - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 10:37 am:
Build your own parking garages then.
- OneOpinion - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 10:46 am:
The state should also pay the salary of an elite Defensive End/Edge. /snark
- H-W - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 10:52 am:
Sen. Murphy is not wrong. As reported in the Morning Briefs section, there is not real net benefit for the citizenry of Illinois. Only costs (NWI: Economist). And if the net effect is taxpayers paying for something without out an equivalent return, Murphy is right about investments in infrastructure without returns on investment being a non-starter. While the Bears may not pay off the state investments required to build a new stadium out of thin air, we do not need to be breathing thin air and becoming euphoric about the Bears remaining in Illinois.
If the Bears want (not need) help, then they need to explain how that help will be recouped by the state explicitly. If the Bears want a parking deck, then they can offer to return the revenues to the state until the debt is paid. If the investment cannot return its start up costs, then it is not an investment by the state nor the Bears. It is simply one less thing the Bears have to purchase.
- Bored Chairman - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 10:56 am:
Revenues from government owned parking facilities are protected by the Transportation Lockbox Amendment. They cannot be diverted to the Bears to “support business operations.”
- Just Another Anon - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 11:04 am:
the tried and truism rears its head again.
- Leatherneck - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 11:07 am:
As OW used to say, “Not. One. Dime.”
- Steve Rogers - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 11:07 am:
Why stop there? In addition to the parking garages, the state can build the stadium, run the organization, and pay the athletes, but the Bears get to keep all of the revenue. What’s not to like? /s
- Jerry - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 11:14 am:
Message to President Warren: pay for the whole thing yourselves.
- Sue - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 11:22 am:
The hostility here is amazing- I really don’t care if the bears stay or depart but folks are underestimating the negatives associated with them leaving- we already are viewed as a lousy place for business despite JB’s consistent rants to the contrary
- The Farm Grad - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 11:36 am:
Miami Dolphins just sold a non-control stake at a 12.5B valuation.
Based on Forbes data, and assuming the Bears would sell a control stake, the team, in an auction, would draw bids in excess of 18B dollars.
Meanwhile, the Bears want working and middle-class homeowners to shoulder the property taxes that a 18B enterprise would otherwise have to pay
- Excitable Boy - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 11:37 am:
- She said the team suggested the state fund parking structures to support a stadium campus in Arlington Heights — with the provision the Bears keep parking revenue to support business operations. -
Jim Thompson is no longer governor, build your own garages if you want the revenue.
- Cool Papa Bell - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 11:42 am:
If I had my druthers the Bears would stay in Illinois, probably even on the lakefront.
But the more you learn about their schemes to squeeze every dollar out of the state and communities I am to the point where I don’t care about the location of a TV program I watch in the fall and winter.
- Jocko - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 12:01 pm:
Warren (and the McCaskeys) literally have the golden goose and are demanding we help pay for the nest.
- *ducks* - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 12:07 pm:
” folks are underestimating the negatives”
Nah. We’re estimating them just right. it’ll be a black eye for the 35% or so Vallas/Dabrowski/ Venn Diagrammers who spelunk for reasons to bash the state.
- Demoralized - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 12:07 pm:
==The hostility here is amazing==
Why? You want to bend over backwards for a multi-billion dollar company be my guest. I don’t. And your red herring of trying to tie this to businesses leaving the state is laughable.
Sue - always sticking up for the rich.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 12:07 pm:
It appears that the value of the franchise will continue to go up, up, up regardless of what the state will or won’t offer. Maybe the best thing the state can do is work with the ISFA to come up with a reasonable Soldier Field rent for the next 30 years. Who knows, maybe the Bears will fold. At worst, they will move across the state line and IL taxpayers will be let off the hook, other than the narrowly-targeted motel tax that is slowly paying off the SF bonds.
- H-W - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 12:12 pm:
@ Sue
Wrong. We are not a bad place for business. The data prove you wrong. That people you listen to say so, suggests you are only listening to one voice.
There is a chorus out there. The vast majority are on pitch and signing the same song. Illinois is a great place for business. Read the data, not the tea leaves, Sue.
- Nagidam - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 12:19 pm:
To the Governor and certain members of the General Assembly that kept attacking the Billionaire owner of the Bears…You own this crisis. How many times have we heard “Not a dime for a billionaire company”? Great talking points until you realize the Bears have options and a Governor running for President can’t afford to lose the Bears to Hammond, Indiana. We keep hearing out of Springfield that all decisions will revolve around affordability. The legislative solution proposed to keep the Bears is anything but. A massive property tax shift is anything but affordable to all the taxpayers that must shoulder the burden. I would love to see the Bears stay in Illinois but the work that is being done to keep them here is lacking.
- Excitable Boy - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 12:22 pm:
- You own this crisis. -
What crisis? The bears leaving would be an annoyance, nothing more.
- JB13 - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 12:42 pm:
“Schemes”
That’s too funny. You would think cheerleaders for government unions that routinely make outrageous demands for taxpayer money would recognize *requests subject to negotiation* when they see one.
No I don’t think taxpayers should build the Bears a parking garage that lets them keep all the revenue.
But that’s a request that can be denied, not examples of perfidy.
Some of y’all need to learn to listen to yourselves
- Rich Miller - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 12:46 pm:
===But that’s a request that can be denied, not examples of perfidy.===
You’re a mind reader now?
- Casper the Ghost Bus - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 12:52 pm:
Bio-pharma company CSL today announced a $1.5 billion expansion in Kankakee area. Word is the Bears want the state to build CSL an employee parking garage and that the Bears would collect all revenue from said garage.
- TNR - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 12:52 pm:
@Sue, IPI, and anyone else who wants to argue a Bears move would be indicative of Illinois poor business climate, there’s this:
To lure the Bears, Indiana created: three brand new sales taxes; a new taxing district in Hammond that will grab incremental growth of property, sale and income taxes in a yet to be defined area; and a provision that will take dollars away from the tollway and spend it on arterial streets.
Are you for doing those things here to improve our business climate?
- Roadrager - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 12:58 pm:
==The hostility here is amazing- I really don’t care if the bears stay or depart but folks are underestimating the negatives associated with them leaving- we already are viewed as a lousy place for business despite JB’s consistent rants to the contrary==
Sue, how are the gas prices in northwest Indiana looking this week?
- Jerry - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 1:29 pm:
@Sue: Actually all the Bears are building is a TV studio to produce 12 “shows” a year. This is their problem. Not the State of Illinois.
- DuPage Saint - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 1:35 pm:
Kevin Warren was a big mistake. The Bears would be better off bringing Mat Eberflues to be President
George McCaskey should make up his mind and get started. If McKaskey has full faith in Warren they deserve to and probably will and up trying to extend the Soldier Field lease with no other option
- Nagidam - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 2:24 pm:
The Bears original lakefront plan was for just short of $5 billion. The Bears requested $900 million in infrastructure improvements. Seems like now might be a good time to revisit that plan. The discussions for the Arlington site include over $700 million for infrastructure and then the Chicago legislators asked for something similar for Soldier Field. And, with the Chicago plan there is no need to figure out a tax shift for property taxes or a forgiveness of sales taxes to build the place.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 2:28 pm:
===The Bears requested $900 million===
$1.5 billion.
- ChicagoBars - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 2:30 pm:
The McCaskey Dome moving to Indiana is only a black eye if the Bears family can execute a robust fairly successful mixed use district around it. And doing so with zero McCaskey experience in real estate or hospitality development in an area even experienced developers would call “challenging” (and that is being kind).
And they’d have to do it competing against the Reinsdorf/Wirtz United Center anchored mixed use district that will simply be much more convenient to a lot more affluent households. Even if they build in AH and pull off something decent they are going to be coming late to market in a fiercely competitive entertainment market.
Even if they gave Pat Ryan control in exchange for funding their dream mixed use privately funded stadium district this is far from a sure thing for any Bears adjacent private investor.
- LT - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 2:41 pm:
@Nagidam
If memory serves me correctly, the Bears’ lakefront proposal was for $900 million from the ISFA in bonding authority (hotel tax) to help pay for direct stadium costs and then an additional $1.5 billion for “infrastructure” cost. Most of the latter would have gone to deconstructing Soldier Field and turning it back into a war memorial/public park.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 3:44 pm:
=== deconstructing Soldier Field ===
Uh, Euphemism alert?
The sooner we admit that the Daley remodel of the stadium destroyed it, the better we will all feel.
If Illinois ends up offering the Bears nada, and they are forced to take the final offer made by Indiana, I will laugh my butt off.
- West Sider - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 5:46 pm:
The McCaskeys are entitled people and bad neighbors. The opposite of civic leaders. Their idea of a public benefit is: our defensive line is less terrible than last year. They do nothing for the betterment of the larger Chicago community, but want our taxes to cover theirs. Pitty the poor billionaires.
- Walker - Monday, Mar 9, 26 @ 5:55 pm:
Murphy knows what’s what