THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All...Legislative reaction to Bears proposal...National Guard Adjutant General retiring...Native Americans returned some Illinois land
April 25, 2024
Good morning, Illinois.
With the General Assembly out this week, I was kind of concerned there wouldn’t be a lot going on. Thanks, Chicago Bears.
This is obviously not a sports newsletter (though, sometimes that would be much more fun), so this isn’t about Caleb Williams or seating designs, or even hosting a Taylor Swift concert.
This is about the ask of a private business asking taxpayers to foot the bill, or at least a lot of the bill, for a giant building that might get used 15-20 times a year.
Our largest group of renewals is coming next week. After a glitch last year, we had to list a bunch of paid subscriptions as “comps.” So if you get an e-mail that your “gift subscription” is ending, that’s from us and you just need to confirm your card for renewal.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Let’s get to it.
YOUR THURSDAY FREE FOR ALL
(note: we’re not responsible for paywalls and restrictions from other news outlets, because good journalism isn’t free)
A skeptical Springfield awaits after Chicago Bears pitch stadium plan backed by mayor (Chicago Tribune)
The Chicago Bears stood with Mayor Brandon Johnson at Soldier Field on Wednesday to launch their public push for a domed stadium on a reimagined lakefront that could cost nearly $5 billion, but the pitch was met with wariness from the triumvirate in Springfield that ultimately will control its fate.
Despite Johnson’s ringing endorsement for the plan that would see the Bears chip in about $2.3 billion in private funding, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Democratic leaders in the state House and Senate made clear the team doesn’t currently have the support it needs to make the architectural renderings a reality.
With the price tag of the stadium itself estimated at $3.2 billion, the Bears are asking the state to take on $900 million in new debt to cover the remaining cost, backed by an existing 2% tax on hotel stays in the city, as well as an additional $1.5 billion in unspecified “infrastructure” funding to reimagine Soldier Field for park space and youth athletic programming.
The team also wants the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority to refinance existing debt for prior projects at Soldier Field and at Guaranteed Rate Field, where the White Sox play, and to borrow at least $150 million to cover future shortfalls in hotel tax revenue. The new so-called liquidity fund would insulate the city from having its share of state funds reduced when the dedicated tax doesn’t bring in enough to cover the annual payment.
The plan calls for repayment of the new borrowing to be stretched out over 40 years, and the whole proposal would require approval from the legislature and the governor. Neither Bears officials nor Chicago Chief Financial Officer Jill Jaworski could say what the total tab would be of that debt for future taxpayers over the planned 40-year term, but both argued the costs would largely be borne by out-of-towners staying in city hotels.
“I believe strongly that this is not a high priority for legislators and certainly not for me,” Pritzker said during an unrelated event in Maywood, held at the same time the Bears and Johnson were making their pitch.
Even as the Bears are seeking quick state approval, the governor has yet to even meet with the team about its plans, a sign of the uphill battle team officials face in trying to push the proposal through the General Assembly before lawmakers are scheduled to adjourn May 24.
House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch of Hillside, speaking at the same Maywood event where he joined Pritzker to tout the governor’s health insurance reform proposal, put it more bluntly.
“I’m going to say to you publicly what I said to (Bears President) Kevin Warren privately last week: If we were to put this issue on the floor for a vote right now, it would fail,” Welch told reporters.
Like Pritzker and Welch, Senate President Don Harmon of Oak Park welcomed the Bears’ commitment to providing private money for the project, which includes a $300 million loan from the NFL.
“But there’s an obvious, substantial gap remaining, and I echo the governor’s skepticism,” Harmon said in a statement.
Related: Bears eye taxpayers for stadium-related infrastructure costs. The bill? $325 million to start, $1.5 billion overall (Chicago Sun-Times)
Ringing endorsement of Bears plan raises the political stakes for Johnson (Crain’s Chicago Business)
In shift away from Arlington Heights, Bears make pitch for new city stadium and public subsidies (Daily Herald)
Bears unveil $5 billion plan for lakefront stadium and seek public funding to make it happen (Associated Press)
New Bears stadium faces obstacles, including ‘skeptical’ Gov. Pritzker (Shaw Media)
Parks advocacy group blasts Bears' stadium pitch (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Top general for Illinois National Guard retiring after joining military nearly 40 years ago (State Journal-Register)
A little over five years ago, Maj. Gen. Richard Neely took the Illinois National Guard flag in a chain of command ceremony.
On May 4, Neely, the adjutant general for Illinois and commander of the Illinois National Guard, will be giving the flag back, marking his retirement from the military after nearly 40 years of service.
"It's the symbology of one leader giving the flag up and one leader taking the flag," Neely said, referring to his successor, Maj. Gen. Rodney Boyd, the assistant adjutant general. "One...of my priorities was to ensure the continuity of leadership.
"Our organization won't miss a beat when that flag is passed."
The appointment of Boyd by Gov. JB Pritzker, who serves as commander-in-chief of the Illinois National Guard, makes history.
The Chicago native will be the first Black officer and person of color to command the guard, which includes about 13,000 soldiers and airmen and about 2,500 other federal and state employees.
Neely, a 57-year-old native of Easton, about an hour northwest of Springfield, has presided over one of the busiest times in the 301-year history of the Illinois National Guard.
The largest domestic operation activation in Illinois National Guard history came in response to the COVID pandemic. That's when personnel performed 250,000 tests, delivered 8 million masks and administered 2 million vaccines.
"We're not always the experts," Neely admitted, "but we can help with large tasks. We can organize. We can prepare large logistics issues. That's what COVID brought us."
Prairie Band Potawatomi becomes 1st federally recognized tribe in Illinois (Capitol News Illinois)
Nearly 200 years after Native Americans were forced out of Illinois, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation has become the first federally recognized tribal nation in the state after a decision from the U.S. Department of the Interior last week.
The move represents the first victory in the tribe’s larger effort to regain the approximately 1,280 acres of its ancestral land in Illinois via legislation in both the General Assembly and Congress.
But the tribe first had to spend $10 million over the last 20 years to repurchase the first 130 acres of the Shab-eh-nay Reservation, located in what is now DeKalb County, that the federal government illegally sold out from under Chief Shab-eh-nay around 1850.
Nearly two centuries later, Prairie Band Chairman Joseph “Zeke” Rupnick – a fourth-great grandson of Chief Shab-eh-nay – signed paperwork on Friday that allows the Department of the Interior to place those 130 acres into a trust, which gives the tribe sovereignty over the land.
Rupnick said he’d heard the story of his ancestral land in Illinois “ever since I was a child” from his grandparents, and said his mother started the push to reclaim the Prairie Band’s land three decades ago when she was the tribe’s chairperson.
“For me to actually get it accomplished and signed, honestly, words couldn't describe the feeling that I had that, you know, when I actually completed that task,” he told Capitol News Illinois on Monday, adding that the credit should be shared with his entire counsel and tribal membership more broadly. “And now the real work begins.”
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POLITICAL POTPOURRI
Illinoisans can now get documents notarized online (Capitol News Illinois)
New legislation could make it easier to become a teacher in Illinois (State Journal-Register)
Senators show confidence in Johnson’s O’Hare rebuild plan (Chicago Tribune)
April Perry's bid to be city's first female top federal prosecutor to end, Biden will tap her to be federal judge (Chicago Sun-Times)
Opinion: The Mayor Is Not Incompetent, He’s Inexperienced (Chicago Magazine)
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