Pritzker to Bears: Win Over Lawmakers, Get a Special Session

Despite the Bears’ stated intent to pursue a $5 billion stadium and mixed-use development in Indiana, there could still be a path for Illinois to re-enter the high-stakes venue race.

Less than a week after the NFL team’s declaration to seek out a stadium in suburban Hammond, Ind., Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he is considering calling a special session to advance a deal in the franchise’s current home state, and said there have been subsequent incoming calls from the Bears. Pritzker, however, said team ownership and leadership are responsible for coalescing a currently divided Illinois legislature around the stadium issue.

“They’ve got to figure out how they can get the legislature, both sides, around the same bill, and I would be happy to call a special session,” he said in an unrelated news conference. 

The Illinois spring legislative session ended early last week without the state’s House of Representatives advancing a Bears stadium bill that the Senate approved in an overnight session. In the wake of that, House Speaker Chris Welch said he did not plan on having a special session to revisit the issue. 

Pritzker, however, is now conveying a different sentiment, and he also has the power to call the legislators back to Springfield. If he does, though, the governor insisted it would remain firmly within the context of protecting Illinois taxpayers. 

“The first priority to me is [that] we’re not raising people’s taxes to pay for a privately owned stadium. That’s number one,” Pritzker said. “I think it’s a mistake to say somehow that there’s anything less than full commitment to getting a legislative priority done, but again, the priorities are the people of Illinois.”

To that end, Pritzker took further aim at the Bears for the prior legislative failure in Illinois.

“They didn’t show up at the end of session,” he said. “There were a number of issues, some of them self-created by the Bears, some of them just in trying to get the two houses, the House and Senate, to work together in the end.”

Across the Border

The Bears said last week they had not yet honed in on a specific site in Hammond for the stadium and surrounding development, and that multiple options were still being considered. 

That lack of specificity is representing yet another potential opening for Illinois leaders, along with an Indiana funding plan that will support about 60% of the stadium cost.

“They haven’t decided even on a location in Indiana,” Pritzker said. “And the one principal location they’ve been focused on is one that has a lot of toxic waste and other things they’ve got to remediate, so none of that is going to happen quickly. … I also want to remind you once again: in Indiana, they’re going to have to raise sales taxes. The question is, ‘Do people in Illinois want their sales taxes raised to pay for the Chicago Bears? Do they want tolls raised to pay for the Chicago Bears?’ I don’t think they do.”