This story has been updated.
Illinois legislators worked until the final hours of their session to get a deal done to keep the Bears football team from leaving the state.
But the chamber did not get a bill across the finish line, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The Illinois Senate put together a last-minute bill, but the House adjourned without a vote. The legislation would have allowed municipalities in Cook County to set up stadium financing authorities.
The legislature could be called in for a special session or try to address it again during the fall session.
“I think the sense that the Illinois government did not come up with a specific plan to keep the Bears here is kind of the news for the moment,” said Brian Gaines, the Arrington Professor of State Politics for the University of Illinois.
Speaking with reporters Monday, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said he did not think the Bears' threat to leave for Indiana was a “ruse” but did want the Bears to remain an Illinois-based team.
“My principles focused on the taxpayers of Illinois and making sure we weren’t doing something like paying for a stadium, a privately-owned stadium for a billionaire-owned team,” Pritzker said. “That didn’t make any sense to me.”
Pritzker said the question of a special session to address the issue is up to the legislature, not to him.
In a statement, the Bears team said they were in the final stages of evaluating either Arlington Heights or Hammond, Indiana as the final location for a new stadium.
The team said they “remain on the late spring/early summer timeline that we have previously communicated. We will provide an update when we have a decision to share.”
But Gaines said that the Bears' deadline is arbitrary, and he believes there’s still time for another Hail Mary attempt to keep them.
“The Bears' deadline is somewhat artificial. They're trying to get the best deal, and they can invent their own deadlines,” he said. “One of the reasons why I'd say this is not the end of the story.”
Indiana lawmakers have been hopeful the package will be enough to attract the Bears to Indiana.
Gaines said among Democrats in Illinois, there are some questions about whether large taxpayer-supported subsidies for millionaires are the best use of state funds.
“It's a massively regressive policy thing to be throwing public money at the wealthiest people in society, and economists have long arguments about what the benefits are of having a pro team,” he said. “Mostly, I think the economic benefits never turn out to be enough to justify subsidies of the kind we tend to see for stadiums.”
Those issues were raised by Illinois Senate President Don Harmon during a press conference Monday. He said people are more worried about affordability than the Bears.
“People are worried about neighbors being thrown off of food stamps, people not being able to keep up with inflation,” Harmon said. “There was no appetite at all to provide public dollars to a $10-billion sports franchise, as much as we love the Bears.”
Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott declined to comment for this story.
Contact Government Reporter Benjamin Thorp at bthorp@wfyi.org
