Rendering of the proposed Chicago Bears stadium in Arlington Heights. | Provided by Manica Architecture
By Fran Spielman | Chicago Sun*Times
Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday mounted the legislative equivalent of a goal-line stand against the Bears’ quest for the property tax break needed to pave the way for a domed stadium in Arlington Heights.
Johnson questioned why any lawmaker from Chicago would even think about providing a massive tax break for a professional sports team valued at nearly $9 billion, while ignoring the need for what he calls progressive revenue to increase school funding and help working people struggling to make ends meet.
“If we’re asking anyone to tighten the belt, we should look at whose belt is exploding — and that’s the ultra-rich. As their bellies get fat and our people are starving, this is not the time to balance the budget off the backs of working people,” the mayor said at his weekly news conference.
“The type of tax structure that they would set up for large corporations and billionaires without a clear pathway to provide certainty as well as equity for everyday working people, I believe that’s a mismatch there. And quite frankly, the infrastructure they’re even discussing in the suburbs — those infrastructure needs have been present on the lakefront for a very long time.”
Hours before joining fellow Chicago-area mayors in Springfield, where he has had little success, Johnson made it clear that he would use whatever political muscle he has to block the so-called megaprojects bill now before the Illinois Senate after clearing the Illinois House on April 22.
Though Chicago is no longer part of the conversation to build a domed stadium needed to keep the Bears in Illinois and stave off a move to Northwest Indiana, Johnson is still holding out hope to keep the Bears in the city.
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