Opponents of Bears stadium subsidies running new hurry-up playbook

When persuading local bureaucracy doesn’t work, try using democracy.

That’s the playbook being employed by a group aiming to stop public subsidies and tax breaks on the Chicago Bears’ $5 billion plan to redevelop the former Arlington International Racecourse into a new football stadium and surrounding mixed-use entertainment district in the northwest suburbs, the Daily Herald reported.

The group, named Americans for Prosperity and led locally by Brian Costin, initially used an obscure Illinois law to force a vote by Arlington Heights officials on whether to adopt what it dubbed an anti-corporate welfare ordinance that would have prevented the local government from “offering or extending any financial incentive to any business or corporation to operate in the village.” That proposal was rejected unanimously by village trustees in October.

Now, the opponents of providing public subsidies to the NFL team — which has said it will build the stadium portion of the project without help from taxpayers while asking for public funding to build the mixed-use residential and retail environment around the football field — are trying a new tactic in Arlington Heights.

They’ve launched a mail marketing campaign aimed at motivating voters to sign a petition to compel a referendum in the April 4 local election on whether the village should “force taxpayers to subsidize” the Bears project.

The group has drawn criticism from Mayor Tom Hayes in the process, but is carrying on with
campaign mailers that urge recipients to gather voter signatures. The effort will require approximately 6,500 signatures from local voters before January 3 in order to get a ballot question certified for the election.

While it’s unknown how many signatures it has collected so far, the campaign earned mayoral refutation for its statement on mailers that, “Your property taxes will go up if Arlington Heights caves to the demands of the Chicago Bears.”

Hayes said that the village hasn’t decided yet on what kind of incentives, if any, to provide the Bears to assist in the redevelopment, but insisted that he doesn’t expect property taxes to increase as a result of the stadium project.

The team is still working to close on its $197 million purchase agreement with racetrack owner Churchill Downs in order to progress with its planned move out of Chicago’s Soldier Field.

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— Sam Lounsberry