No
The Chicago Bears are arguing with three public college districts within the northwest suburbs about property taxes for the positioning of their proposed $5 billion leisure and housing complicated. The small print are even much less savory than they sound.
Illinois, like many different states, funds its public colleges largely through property taxes. For colleges situated in low-income or blighted neighborhoods, that is an appalling deal. It’s laborious to rake within the dough through property taxes when the native property isn’t value a lot. However in case you’re fortunate sufficient to dwell in a college district that encompasses huge companies and million-dollar houses, like some districts within the Chicago suburbs, property taxes are an enormous income. That mentioned, there are few college districts anyplace which can be rolling in money, and most faculties want each penny they will get their fingers on. The decrease the property valuation, the much less funding for public colleges. On common, Illinois colleges rely on native property taxes for 63 percent of their funding.
This brings us to the Chicago Bears and the Village of Arlington Heights (the Village), dwelling of the previous Arlington Worldwide Racecourse, which has since been offered to the workforce and demolished the hopes of luring the Bears away from the Chicago lakefront and out to the northwest suburbs. The Bears have been taking part in Chicago and the Village in opposition to one another, paying $197 million for the 326-acre former Racecourse property a yr in the past.
In the meantime, the workforce continues to flirt with each the town and the Village, attempting to leverage either side’s curiosity, whereas the workforce wavers on staying within the metropolis or transferring out to the ‘burbs. This decision, in the end, will come down to who gives the Bears the best deal on what they really want — a new stadium complex, complete with restaurants, bars, housing, retail space, and whatever else teams are demanding the public subsidize these days. It’s additionally value noting that Illinois taxpayers nonetheless owe $640 million on the 2002 renovations to Soldier Discipline, regardless of having made funds for greater than 20 years. It’s factor Illinois doesn’t have extra vital issues to pay for!
Now, the mayor of Arlington Heights, Tom Hayes has been forced to deny that the Village is pressuring college districts to conform to a decrease property tax valuation for the Racecourse property — the Bears knocked down all of the buildings on the positioning for the aim of decreasing the property worth, thus paying fewer taxes — than the college districts’ authentic estimate, which suggests much less cash for colleges than the districts say they want.
A little bit of historical past: As beforehand talked about, the Bears bought the Racecourse property in 2023 for $197 million. They then proceeded to demolish all of the buildings on the property, in hopes of decreasing the positioning’s property worth. The Cook dinner County Assessor’s Workplace, which is liable for assessing the property for tax functions, valued the property at $192 million, which might have caught the Bears with a property tax invoice of $15 million, barely greater than what the Bears freed up cap house per yr by chopping security Eddie Jackson. The workforce submitted their very own property value determinations in an try to barter a cope with the three college districts that draw tax income from the Racecourse property. The Bears two value determinations valued the property at far lower than they paid for it — claiming the positioning was value round $60 million, which might have meant the workforce paid $5 million in taxes. The college districts, however, wished the property valued at round $160 million, which remains to be $37 million lower than the workforce paid for it in 2023.
If attempting to get out of paying property taxes that largely go to funding public colleges looks like a extremely shady factor for a professional sports activities franchise to do, particularly when the workforce’s matriarch, Virginia McCaskey, is value round $2 billion, welcome to the seedy underbelly of financing stadiums in 2024. Group homeowners are dyed-in-the-wool capitalists, till it comes time to ask for one thing they need, then everyone seems to be very happy to slip into the socialism of a public handout. You possibly can’t take it with you, Virginia.
So the Bears, missing any disgrace in any respect, appealed the Assessor’s appraisal, and final week a Board of Overview set the worth of the property at $125 million, greater than double the valuation the Bears had been asking for, however round $60 million much less what they paid for it. Looks as if a good compromise, no? However the matter is way from settled, and the Bears may nonetheless enchantment the evaluation. In Could, Bears’ CEO Kevin Warren mentioned in a letter to highschool superintendents that the college districts’ valuation of the property was a “non-starter,” which is certainly an awesome search for a workforce that has an entire section on their web site touting their dedication to schooling.
Due to the looming risk that the Bears will proceed to struggle the valuation, Hayes has been “encouraging” either side to proceed to speak, hoping that the college district and the workforce can agree upon a property valuation that can hold the Bears curious about constructing a stadium within the Village. Persevering with to ask the college districts to barter a decrease property worth than two authorities assessments have already landed at, one far lower than what the workforce paid for the property, appears indifferent from actuality at greatest, and like pressuring public colleges to take much less tax {dollars} to lure a professional sports activities complicated to the realm at worst.
The concept of a negotiated “memorandum of understanding” between the events led neighborhood activist and Village resident Keith Moens to assert to the Village Board on February 20, “Village staff and board members are actively involved in pressuring the school districts to bend toward the Bears’ lowball property estimate through a memo of understanding.” In the meantime, because the Racecourse property battle raged in early February, the Bears coincidentally turned their consideration again to a brand new lakefront stadium in Chicago. Humorous how that works.
Mayor Hayes has denied that anybody is placing strain on the general public college districts concerned, saying “There is no pressure being exerted by me or this board on the school districts to come to an agreement with the Bears. We’re doing all we can to encourage both sides to continue to talk and come to a reasonable solution that’s amenable to both sides.” However why a mayor would encourage a college district to enter into negotiations that will solely finish in them agreeing to take much less income than they might in any other case get appears tone-deaf. It’s as if everybody has forgotten which celebration is value billions and which celebration is a perennially cash-strapped governmental physique tasked with educating our youngsters. In fact, a part of a mayor’s job is to draw enterprise to the realm, however doing it on the expense of public college kids is deplorable and derelict.
All of this turns into tougher to reconcile realizing that the idea that new stadiums “bring in business and revenue to surrounding communities” has been repeatedly debunked by economists. But communities are nonetheless falling for it. Michael Leeds, a professor of economics at Temple College, wrote in his e book The Economics of Sports activities, “Economists have consistently found little or no evidence that facilities and teams affect the level of employment, tax receipts, incomes, or wages in a city.” That’s a reasonably damning sentiment for politicians to proceed to disregard, notably when it means throwing public colleges underneath the bus with a view to give a workforce value billions a brand new stadium.
