In one of life’s ironies, the Democratic Party, filled with billionaires who fund the party’s activist wing, promotes every left-wing, but draws the line when working with billionaires. Many already know about Congressional Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s opposition to Amazon setting up shop in New York. According to AOC, Amazon’s 2018 deal would require massive public subsidies, potentially drive up rents for people living in the Congressional district she represents in Queens, could hurt union workers, and showed all the signs of a backroom deal that had bypassed proper city council approval. It cost the area 25,000 good-paying jobs, but this pales in comparison to the recent news of the Chicago Bears, one of the NFL’s most storied franchises, having to find a new home in another state. The Bears, who have called Chicago home for over a century, became so weary of dealing with Illinois politicians that they fled to Indiana. As the story goes, Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, did not think that the Bears should receive any government funding since the franchise, valued at $8.5 billion, demanded money for infrastructure upgrades. Does the case present another example of Democratic billionaires acting in the interests of the public purse, or are they just trying to score political points amongst a base that has become more like socialist Bernie Sanders in outlook than the party that once believed in capitalism so they could share the wealth it created? The facts reveal an interesting story.
BACKGROUND
In 2021, the Bears spent $197 million to purchase and demolish the old Arlington Park racetrack in Illinois. As for the team’s new stadium, it would be located on the 326-acre site. By the time the deal closed in 2023, the Bears had the site cleared and ready for development. The state of Illinois valued the property at $192 million, while the Bears valued it closer to $60 million. The fight dragged on for several years.
Seeking to avoid reassessment of property value, the team wanted the state to put up the money to improve infrastructure that everyone uses year-round, not just on selected game days (eight to nine games per year, maybe a couple more if the team hosts playoff games). In effect, the proposal was to build a stadium for $2 billion while the government kicks in about a billion dollars for network improvements. According to sources, the announcement came just days after the Illinois General Assembly adjourned its spring legislative session on June 1 without passing a multi-billion-dollar incentive package or the stadium authority framework the team requested.
IMPLICATIONS
Cook County viewed the development as a tax grab, the same way any entrepreneur would seek to leverage supply and demand opportunities. They estimated that a built stadium would generate $53 billion in property tax revenue per year, so they demanded it early. Instead, they will now get $4 billion per annum for an empty lot. Pritzker claims the Bears, a franchise worth billions, do not need propping up. He could be right, but every NFL city throws in public money for a stadium. Why? The return includes tourism, hotels, restaurants, jobs, game day publicity, and property tax forever. This situation seems to be exceptionally straightforward and obvious. Indiana did the math.
WHAT HAPPENED
In a matter of months, the Indiana legislature, led by Republican Governor Mike Braun, passed a bipartisan bill establishing the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority, which will issue bonds and provide up to $1 billion in taxpayer-backed financing. The stadium will be in Hammond, Indiana, on the border of Illinois, about twenty minutes from Chicago’s downtown loop. The Bears will rent from the state instead of owning their own stadium. A team wanting to build its own home gave up ownership just to escape the state’s governor, the city’s mayor, and the Democrat-controlled legislature. After the decision to leave was announced, Pritzker said the following: “I wasn’t willing to give up billions of dollars of taxpayer money to give it to a billionaire-owned family or team.” That seems to be how Democrats talk about businesses just before they run them out of town. One Twitter commentator said, “Call them a billionaire, act like you’re saving working families, take a victory lap while the tax base drives across the state line.” Both Chicago and Illinois face severe financial crises. The city faces a massive structural deficit due to skyrocketing pension liabilities and diminishing tax revenues. The state also faces significant pension payouts, and its credit rating is among the lowest in the nation (Indiana’s is the 4th-best). Building schools, fixing roads, or addressing municipal projects looks like an uphill climb, but it seems to be worthwhile as long as you stick it to billionaires.
THERE’S MORE
The state had no problem leasing parking meters to Morgan Stanley and a sovereign wealth fund in Abu Dhabi for 75 years. They have sold bridges, downtown garages and other assets to keep the hounds at bay, but a fixed property tax rate for a city institution like the Bears? That’s “propping up billionaires.” Other companies are leaving Illinois. Boeing has gone to Virginia, Caterpillar to Texas, and Citadel (a global financial institution) to Florida. Indiana has a $676-million surplus after decades of Republican leadership. Repeated examples of this exist across the fruited plain. Until blue states stop targeting billionaires as thieves who steal from their customers, extort governments, and bring nothing to community and cultural life, stories like what just happened in Chicago will abound. The government of Illinois still believes that the Bears will reverse their decision and return to their stomping grounds because Pritzker and company are on the right side of history. That leftist trope may comfort the longing in the hearts of the pious protectors of the public treasury, but fiscal realities in Red-governed states prove that the piper must eventually be paid. Don’t expect the Bears to play in Chicago once the new digs open in 2031. Opposing billionaires may feel good, but it comes at a cost.
Dave Redekop is a retired elementary resource teacher who worked part-time at the St. Catharines Courthouse as a Registrar until being appointed Executive Director at Redeemer Bible Church in October 2023. He has worked on political campaigns since high school and attended university in South Carolina for five years, earning a Master’s in American History with a specialization in Civil Rights. Dave loves reading biographies.
