How close are the Bears to building a new stadium?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 104.3 The Score. We thank you for joining us on this Tuesday. And I know that it is a topic that is tedious. It's just basically a lot of people speaking in front of microphones. Gee, why would we be interested in that? Oh, we're a lot of people speaking in front of microphones.
We're entertaining.
Interesting. So the latest on the stadium is... is that there is some movement. Everybody's saying multiple reports that the Bears and the Illinois lawmakers are closer on a stadium deal. And this is really birthed from what Jabri Pritzker had to say yesterday when he talked about there being a little bit of movement closer to the concept of the Bears getting some work done in Illinois. So J.B. Pritzker was at an event downstate. He talked about the so-called pilot legislation that would give the team ability to negotiate property tax levels within the village of Arlington Heights at the land they've already purchased for a stadium. Paris Schutz was on with the afternoon show Spiegel and Holmes. Let's listen to how Paris, the Fox 32 reporter who's been following this, explain what the details are now.
I mean, all signs, Lawrence, and thanks for that introduction, Lawrence and Matt, point to the fact that this Indiana play has motivated Illinois to change its tune. You see Governor Pritzker and State Rep Cam Buckner going from saying we're not helping out a billion dollar corporation to today saying, you know, we feel there's progress.
What recent developments are there in the Bears' stadium situation?
let's find a deal that's going to be good for the team and good for taxpayers. So what I've been told, there are talks that are going on, and I've been told these talks have been going on pretty regularly between a deputy governor, Andy Menard, in the governor's office and Cam Buckner and then State Senator Bill Cunningham and the Bears. And they've been hammering out the details. And what sources close to these talks say is that there is an agreement. Lawmakers are on board the idea of infrastructure spending. Governor Pritzker has said that, you know, he's not opposed to that. And they're on board the idea of this pilot legislation, as it's called, that would give mega developments like the Bears the ability to negotiate property tax levels,
with the community, as opposed to getting their giant piece of property assessed and then having a $100 million tax bill. They would negotiate these things going forward. That's the thing that Kevin Warren has called property tax certainty. So it's just the details of those things aren't agreed to, but the principle of those things, lawmakers are now saying, okay, we can do this.
That was pair shots on with Spiegel and Holmes yesterday. So he kind of translates for us. Now keep in mind a couple of things. The Bears bought Arlington Heights in 2023. So we it's February, I believe, of 2023. So we're to the three year mark of there being nothing construction wise. Property taxes have been a major sticking point, as we know. I don't necessarily know how much them threatening to go to Indiana mattered in this. I think it's there's also been a reiteration on the state's part of what they're able to do. But that part about the, quote, property tax certainty, and that just basically means they want their rates to be some sort of guaranteed or set.
Which is normal.
Yeah, usually, though, you do it before you buy the land. And that's the thing here is that that's I've always maintained this. They did it out of order. So these are the three aspects of this you have to keep in mind when you hear this.
I think it's understandable that they want the tax certainty, of course.
How are Illinois lawmakers responding to the Bears' stadium proposal?
Yes, they are out of order, but this franchise has been out of order in a lot of things at a lot of times. So that's unsurprising, pre-Kevin Warren, we'll say. Kevin Warren was brought in to get this thing rolling, and it has not rolled as of yet. But it feels like they are getting to the starting blocks here. And I think that's progress. And this idea that the Bears are going to build in Arlington Heights is not one that is lost on anyone.
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Chapters
3 chaptersSpeakers
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