Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Geoff Buchholz talks Bears' megaprojects bill heading to state Senate
23 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What recent developments are there in the Bears' stadium project?
Rahimi, Harrison, Grody.
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Middays 10 to 2 on 104.3 The Score.
This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 104.3 The Score. And as much as we also want to talk about the Bears draft in this next segment, there's a lot going on as far as the state legislature is concerned. The pilot bill that is also called the Bears bill, it is payment in lieu of taxes regarding not just the Bears, but other businesses in Illinois when it comes to
trying to make a payment instead of property taxes has gone through the house but now it is up to the senate there have been changes so for the latest let's go out to city hall that is where we find jeff buckholtz the wbbm news radio political editor he is joining us also on twitch twitch.tv slash the score chicago jeff how are you
I'm good. Layla, how's it going? I miss you guys. We haven't had a chance to talk in a while.
Yeah, you know, the legislature took a break and probably mercifully for the sports department in our sister station group. So did we. So what can you tell us about just procedurally first to let people know this bill has taken steps forward, but it doesn't sound like they are closer at this point in time to the Bears getting what they want out of the deal.
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Chapter 2: What is the significance of the Bears' megaprojects bill?
Yeah, that's true. Since the last time we talked about this bill, it got a lot bigger. It picked up a whole lot more stuff. It kind of looks like a Christmas tree now, if you like. There's a provision in there providing tourism assistance for Springfield, and there's incentives in there to develop old rail yards.
But the stuff that we really care about is, of course, the megaprojects part of it, which still provides for the opportunity for developers of a so-called megaproject. And there are specific rules about what constitutes a megaproject.
to negotiate and set long-term property tax payments with local units of government and other taxing bodies like school districts and park districts in lieu of paying property taxes and having that property taxed. exposed to changes in assessed value over time.
The big change that was made to this legislation is a provision that those negotiated payments, the ones that the mega project developers make to those taxing bodies, 50% of those payments must now be set aside to provide property tax relief. And the way that works is those payments, let's say a payment, let's take a payment of $1,000. 500 of that would go to property tax relief.
Of that $500, 60% of it, and here's where my math goes away, 60% of that money would stay in the local community to provide property tax relief for people living around the megaproject. For instance, local governments could set up their own rules for that.
And 40%, the remaining 40%, would go to a statewide property tax relief fund that's been in existence for a while, but has never had a funding mechanism for it.
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Chapter 3: How does the new legislation affect property tax payments for megaprojects?
So it's sitting empty, waiting for someone to decide how to put money in it. And this bill seems to do that. So those are the biggest changes. And the ones that are getting the most attention is this property tax relief portion. And it's consistent with what the House Speaker, Chris Welch, Emanuel Chris Welch, has been saying all along. that the legislature's focus is affordability this year.
And this is a big affordability provision in addition to a bill that allows developers across the state some incentive to stay or move to Illinois. And they're super proud of that. The... It's now headed to the Senate. The Senate is out of session. They'll be back in next week. The House is going to wrap up today. I think they're about to be in session right now.
But as you suggest, there's still some room for work to be done. The Bears released a statement after the vote, and the vote came like 7.30, quarter to 8 last night. The Bears released a statement saying that they welcomed the progress, and I want to make sure that I get this right, this particular quote.
Additional amendments are necessary to make the Arlington Heights site feasible for our stadium project. It sounds like that means the bears are still looking for help in paying for infrastructure, bigger roads, improved water systems and that kind of thing around the old Arlington Park site. And this bill doesn't specifically do that.
So the bears want to see more of that before they're ready to show their cards, really, in terms of how they're feeling about that. Arlington Heights, the future of Arlington Heights versus the Hammond site that's been talked about as the site that the folks in Indiana are presenting.
Jeff, based on the bear statement, it's not quite, you know, the Simpsons, at least you tried cake where they throw it in the trash. But it is like, this is a start, but this is not nearly where we want to be. And it's almost like a challenge. I mean, no, it's not like a challenge. It's a challenge to get us across the finish line by meeting all of our requirements or going to Indiana.
And again, I don't believe they're going to Indiana, but... When you talk about the teachers union and everybody, all the little people, now I don't mean little in like a bad way, but just all the little dividends of people who want to get involved with this, how messy could this get because of Chicago politics?
It could get really messy, Marshall, and it's already shown signs of being pretty messy.
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Chapter 4: What changes were made to the megaprojects bill during the legislative process?
The fact that this passed out and there were 78 votes in favor of it, which is beyond the sort of the super majority that the Democrats have in the House. I mean, some Republicans signed on to this thing, too, and there are provisions in there designed to attract those votes. But the Senate is a whole different animal. And Don Harmon, the Senate president, who's also from Chicago, obviously he
is hearing from his members who may still be concerned about anything that involves encouraging the chicago bears to leave soldier field uh and indeed you point out the uh illinois federation of teachers which like the chicago teachers union is run by stacy davis gates has certainly started to make its opinions known about this particular proposal.
So expect that state lawmakers and state senators, when they come back next week, will hear a lot from the Bears. They'll hear a lot from the IFT and the CTU, both of which are very powerful in this state. And I mean, we'll kind of see what happens. We've talked about this a number of times on on this program and on some of the other programs on the score. I'm with you, Marshall.
I don't think the Bears are going to go to Indiana. I think that the front office, in particular George McCaskey, is looking for really any reason to say yes to Illinois. And I think this is Part of the way there, I remember when the first edition of this pilot bill passed the committee and I asked Cam Buckner, the sponsor, where he thought it was in terms of progress.
He said he thought it was nearing the red zone. I think we're a little closer to the red zone now, but they don't have a clear shot at the end zone yet by any stretch of the imagination.
You know, Jeff, I'm completely with you on George McCaskey looking for any possible way to stay in Illinois, despite the flattering things he has said about Hammond, Indiana, and that potential site, and predicting that fans will be cool with it, and even talking about George Halas. But I want to go back...
to what you were talking about with the additional amendments that the bears are looking for a couple things on that i thought that the infrastructure stuff was that part of it was taken care of and and then i guess the other part is is if the bears don't get what they want out of these amendments Could they then, say, pull the Indiana card back out again and put that back in print?
Because they never used the word Indiana yesterday. But if they don't get what they want here, could they then go back to the Indiana playground, so to speak?
I mean, that's always their option, right? I mean, they have that thing kind of in the chamber, don't they, Grody?
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Chapter 5: How will the Bears' statement impact the stadium project negotiations?
And what I suspect will happen is, is that they'll wind up doing a companion piece of legislation to follow this one that may specifically address some of the bear's infrastructure needs.
And the governor's office and the governor himself has said, and he said this repeatedly to us, that he's open to providing assistance with infrastructure for the bears as he would, as the state would for any private business that wants to expand or build a new operation in the state of Illinois.
Well, and I think that that's a big part of it, Jeff. We're talking to the WBBM political editor, Jeff Buchholz, on Rahimi Harrison-Grody about the mega projects bill. Kevin Warren has even mentioned this bill has been in the works for years in the state of Illinois. It's being called the Bears bill to get clicks. But if it were just about the bears, this would be a different discussion.
And I think it's important for people to understand this isn't just regarding the bears. This is regarding business being done in the state of Illinois into perpetuity until something would change this bill. You know, how can you further explain that?
Well, so and Cam Buckner has a great used a great analogy when he talks about this bill. He says just because you build a bridge and someone is the first person to drive across that bridge, it doesn't mean the bridge was built for that person. right?
This is designed to give local units of government a tool, really a toolbox, as Representative Buckner called it yesterday, to help attract and keep businesses and employers in their area. And there is one of the things that is interesting in this bill, one of the interesting additions made to this thing is that it sunsets after seven years.
And this gives the legislature the opportunity to decide after seven years if this thing is still working, if it's something that the state still needs as a way to spur economic development and also property tax relief, or if they want to make changes to it or if they want it to just kind of go away. This isn't completely unusual in in terms of legislation that appears in the state of Illinois.
There are sunset dates on a number of pieces of legislation. But that is one of the things that may make it more palatable for some people who may have been no votes to come over and say yes, because they can say, okay, well, we'll try this out, and if after seven years we're not fans, then we'll do something else with it.
and this not only and just as a reminder i know we've talked about this but as a reminder this isn't just letting developers negotiate a long-term property tax rate and payment in lieu of those taxes with local governments it also provides sales tax breaks on building materials
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Chapter 6: What challenges does the Bears' project face from local politics?
I appreciate that.
It is the Chicago Cubs. I think the word team is in Munataka Murakami's name.
You're right. You can't spell team without Munataka Murakami.
Don't know if that's true or not.
It's the Cubs, Layla. It's the Cubs. It's the Cubs.
Hey, Layla, I got to tell you, when we talk about the Cubs, there's going to be a very interesting thing that I reveal. Very interesting. Whoa.
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