The Arlington Park Metra stop adjacent to property owned by the Chicago Bears and the potential home to a new stadium in Arlington Heights, Illinois. | Jon Styf / The Center Square
By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
A state representative has filed new legislation aimed at keeping the Chicago Bears in Illinois, but Gov. J.B. Pritzker says the Bears have to decide what they want first.
State Rep. Martin McLaughlin, R-Barrington Hills, filed the Taxpayer and Investment Protection Act on Monday.
House Bill 5797 applies to private developments with more than $2.5 billion of investments located in counties with more than one million people.
The proposal calls for the state to spend $1.2 billion on infrastructure for a Bears-owned stadium and surrounding development.
McLaughlin said the bill includes a negotiated property tax up front, based on the Bears’ $200 million land purchase in Arlington Heights.
“What that would be going forward, whether it’s three or four or $500 million, they set a 2.5% tax rate, and that goes up each and every year for 30 years,” McLaughlin told The Center Square.
McLaughlin said a third-party auditor would review the Bears, the state and local taxing bodies to prevent cost shifting.
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Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all negotiate such small tax rate hikes currently less than inflation? Instead of the 10%-60% hikes we often see in cook county, especially in D220?