As the Illinois spring session nears its end, State Rep. Kam Buckner says lawmakers will deliver a megaprojects bill that keeps the Bears in Illinois. The chief sponsor is racing to finish negotiations in the Illinois Senate with State Sen. Bill Cunningham, wh
For the third morning before the clock runs out in Springfield, Illinois lawmakers are still trying to decide whether they can move fast enough to keep the Bears from leaving.
With the spring legislative session set to wrap up this weekend, State Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago) said Friday he is confident the General Assembly will “find a deal that works to keep the Bears in the state of Illinois” and prevent Chicago’s NFL franchise from accepting a more lucrative offer to move to Hammond. Indiana.
Buckner is the chief sponsor of a megaprojects bill he says the Bears need to build a domed stadium in Arlington Heights. The proposal would allow the team to negotiate discounted property tax payments with local school districts and other taxing bodies. Buckner pushed the bill through the Illinois House after adding a nominal property tax break for homeowners and a host of economic incentives Chicago could use to develop abandoned rail yard sites—including The 78 and the nearby Amtrak site being eyed by the White Sox—as well as the old Michael Reese Hospital site and developer Bob Dunn’s scaled-down One Central project on existing rail tracks west of Soldier Field.
But the bill is still not finished. State Sen. Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago) is working to hammer out changes needed to get the legislation through the Illinois Senate. where Cunningham—identified as the Illinois Senate’s president pro tempore—is retiring Dec. 31. Buckner framed the final stretch as Cunningham’s last chance to avoid a misstep “at the goal line.”.
“Bill Cunningham will find a way to do something on that end. … The structure of our bill is strong. … If there are some tweaks, we’re looking forward to seeing what they come up with. … Three days doesn’t sound like a lot of time. But three days can be a lifetime,” Buckner said Friday.
Buckner. who predicted the Bears would not be forced into a move. said there is “no way that as much as $800 million in infrastructure funding needed to ready the Arlington Heights site for stadium development will get done before Sunday” unless the traffic study that must precede the funding “falls out of thin air.”.
Still, he argued that even if timing prevents all the Arlington Heights infrastructure money from arriving in time, the pressure on Chicago’s lakefront cannot be ignored.
“The traffic bottleneck around Soldier Field and the Museum Campus ‘needs something on infrastructure regardless of what happens with the Bears. ’” Buckner said. adding that it “needs something” because the area is “not connected the way it should be.” He pointed to how large events like Lollapalooza can leave attendees “cut off from everything. ” making it “hard to get there and get out of there.”.
The push for a Bears deal is also colliding with the political stakes around competing stadium ideas. Mayor Brandon Johnson has mounted what Buckner described as the legislative equivalent of a goal-line stand against the megaprojects bill. while holding out hope for Johnson’s 2024 plan to build a domed lakefront stadium near Soldier Field. Buckner said that plan went nowhere because it would require $900 million in hotel tax revenue and $1.5 billion in infrastructure funding.
In Buckner’s telling, the mayor’s efforts have further antagonized Gov. JB Pritzker, making it “more difficult for Buckner and Cunningham to get the ball over the legislative goal line.”
The fight also widened beyond stadium construction economics. Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas—also reported to be considering a race for mayor—complicated the debate with a study questioning the public benefit of giving the Bears a tax break of $1.5 billion over 40 years. The study asserted that benefits are “clear” for big companies like the Bears but “murky” for most taxpayers.
Buckner responded by accusing Pappas of setting up the case against the bill with a “fantasy baseline” in which “every project magically gets built in Illinois, pays full taxes forever, requires no incentives and faces no interstate competition.”
“That’s not the world we’re living in. Indiana did not pass legislation because they were bored,” Buckner said. “They passed legislation because they understand competition.”
For Buckner, the most urgent test is not only whether Springfield can strike a package that satisfies the Senate, but whether it can do so without giving Chicago Democrats the sense they are just paving a path for an exit.
Buckner called a “megaprojects bill on Ozempic” that he said “does little more than pave the way for the Bears to exit Soldier Field” a “tough sell” for Chicago Democrats who “want to see something in there for Chicago.” He said the House support for his bill came from assembling a framework that gave Chicago “tools to compete” not only for stadiums but for “economic development writ large.”.
“Whatever comes out of here in the next couple of days has to be something that at least nods to the fact that there needs to be a plan for the city,” Buckner said.
With the session set to end this weekend and the Senate still working through changes. Buckner’s confidence appears to be a bet on one closing window: a last-minute deal strong enough to satisfy Chicago’s lawmakers and practical enough—within days— to keep the Bears from deciding they have better options elsewhere.
Chicago Bears Kam Buckner Bill Cunningham Arlington Heights stadium Hammond Indiana domed stadium megaprojects bill Illinois General Assembly property tax relief Maria Pappas Brandon Johnson JB Pritzker Soldier Field traffic