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SUNDAY, May 31, 2026
PRITZKER; BEARS; BIMP; ELECTIONS

‘HAIL MARY’ PASS BEING PREPARED The governor’s three-year dream of passing a payment in lieu of taxes law and tying it to a new Chicago Bears suburban stadium complex deal went down in flames last night. What is starting to emerge in its place looks more like a traditional stadium deal. But it’s a lot to explain to legislators on the session’s final day.

Gov. Pritzker’s basic idea was to lock in locally negotiated tax payments in lieu of property taxes for decades to give the Bears and other megaprojects developers around the state an incentive via “tax certainty.” But so many Senate Democrats refused to vote for the PILOT idea that it clearly couldn’t pass, even with some Republican support. The main (not only) Senate objection was the large tax break being offered in lieu of property taxes.

The new idea that emerged yesterday would have the Bears pay to build their stadium on publicly owned land. No tax money would be used for the stadium itself, but the language would be structured (perhaps via a lease to own concept like Indiana’s) so that the team wouldn’t owe property taxes, but pay in other ways. Like the current offer, infrastructure costs would be picked up by state and local governments.

A big caution: The whole thing is basically just back of the envelope stuff right now. They’ll have some language drafted by this morning that sets up a basic framework which all sides can live with and then work out the details by veto session (which, as we recently discussed, is an increasingly common phenomenon). There are also conflicting descriptions of what the deal is, so I’ve tried to talk to as many informed folks as I could and get them to clarify. Even so, this is far from being a solid proposal.

Will the Bears go for it? They’ve seemed pretty patient this month, to the point where some folks believe the threat to move to Indiana isn’t real. But that could just be wishful thinking.

The plan, such as it is, would theoretically give Chicago a shot at keeping the Bears in the city, so the issue of what to do with the Soldier Field campus could also be punted – if, that is, the Bears agree to the framework and the bill passes.

As noted above, that is a whole lot of new information for legislators to digest on the very last day of a severely back-loaded spring session, along with everything else on their plates. Man, what a mess.

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CAN THAT REALLY BE THE BIMP? “It’s as boring as a revisory,” joked one lobbyist last night about the budget implementation bill (HB2949, Senate amendment 2). That person was right. Dozens of fixes to scrivener errors, basic changes to keep the government running, small-ball issues within agencies.

This leads me (and that lobbyist I spoke with) to believe that another BIMP amendment may be coming. BIMPs are usually where the powers that be put big stuff they want passed. Stay tuned.

True to form, though, the Senate chose an interesting bill to shell out with the BIMP language. A few years ago, they gutted and replaced the state bean commemorative bill. Last year it was a bill creating Diwali Day.

This time around, a bill establishing Alopecia Awareness Month was replaced with the BIMP language.

Senate President Don Harmon does not like commemorative bills, and it shows.

Also, expect an amendment to the appropriations bill today. And as of late last night, the revenue omnibus had not surfaced.

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ELECTIONS OMNIBUS FILED – by Rich and Isabel Miller The Senate filed the elections omnibus bill yesterday, but we might expect at least some changes.

Amendment 3 to House Bill 1832 would impose new disclosure requirements on certain AI-generated political ads, help out the CTU, change some lobbyist requirements and make a host of election-related changes, including one change that may have to be altered.

Political ads containing AI-generated images, audio or video that could “reasonably lead to voter interference, coercion, or intimidation if the use of artificial intelligence is not disclosed to voters” would have to disclose that the content was generated “in whole or substantially” by artificial intelligence in the ad itself.

Campaigns and other entities regulated by the State Board of Elections would also have to notify the board within 24 hours after a qualifying advertisement airs publicly. The board would publish a list of those advertisements and their sponsors online. Violators could face fines of up to $250 for a first offense and up to $1,000 for subsequent violations. Broadcasters and others would not be subjected to the penalties.

Election authorities could begin the process of counting vote-by-mail ballots seven days before election day, although results could not be released until polls close.

State and local political committees would gain access to lists of rejected vote-by-mail ballots, including voter contact information. The bill also creates a statewide tracking system allowing voters to monitor their ballots and learn whether they were accepted or rejected. The bill would allow counties to establish universal vote centers beginning in 2027.

The amendment includes a contingency provision tied to a pending US Supreme Court case involving late-arriving mail ballots. If the court rules federal law preempts Illinois’ current system, which allows ballots post-marked by election day to be counted up to two weeks later, then a ballot in a federal election would be considered received when it is in the custody of the election authority by the close of polls on election day.

However, the bill also changes the law about when ballots can be mailed. The intent appears to be in case of an adverse Supreme Court case, but it’s not clear in print. For example, it changes application date requirements for vote by mail ballots from 5 days to 10 days before an election. Mailed ballots would also need to be postmarked 5 days before an election (instead of on election day). I’m guessing some county clerks will impose those requirements even without an adverse Supreme Court decision.

Some folks who circulated petitions for the Chicago Teachers Union candidates (and, to be fair, several others) in the non-partisan city school board races had already circulated petitions for partisan and independent candidates before the primary, which is in the same election cycle as the school board race, and that’s not allowed under state law (10 ILCS 5/10-4). Some rival campaigns are apparently hoping to kick some of those candidates off the ballot.

So, the proposal would retroactively legalize those circulators going back to 2025.

Registered lobbyists would be barred from using current or former governmental titles on business cards, letterhead or emails used to solicit business or to lobby officials. That’s apparently enough of a problem to warrant regulation.

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