Jeff Buchholz

So we're talking about kind of the stadium plus whatever development is owned by the Bears.

And in a conversation last month with the mayor of Arlington Heights, who I know has been on the score a lot,

He mentioned that without that kind of certainty, without the ability to negotiate a long-term property tax rate over a period of 20, 30, 40 years or whatever, the bears would be subject to reassessment every three years, just like everybody else who owns property in the area.

And the estimate for what the property tax bill would be on that land is somewhere between $100 and $200 million.

Right.

which is a lot of money.

I mean, right now, the assessed value of the empty plot of land that used to be Arlington Park is $3.3 million.

That's what the Bears are paying in property tax right now on an undeveloped piece of land.

That's correct.

And the property tax bill on, for instance, SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles is like $9 million.

Wow.

That's true.

But it does look at the sort of competitive pressure the Bears may feel as they look at how to develop this area and whatever financial obligations they have versus owners of other NFL teams.

Yeah, sure.

And it's true.

And back to income taxes, the other issue, of course, is that Illinois doesn't have a graduated income tax.

The governor and others have long favored one, and the effort to pass one failed some years ago.

Yeah, a million here, a million there.

Pretty soon you're talking real money.

The thing about the Bears is – I think we talked about this a little bit last week.