A lobbying company employed by a trio of college districts that tax the earlier Arlington Worldwide Racecourse web site the Chicago Bears currently purchased has begun providing updates on the company’s work, telling Palatine Neighborhood Consolidated College District 15 officers Wednesday evening time there’s nothing substantial to report — correct now.
“To date, we haven’t had any conversations which have resulted in an settlement, however we’re nonetheless speaking to the Bears and we’re making an attempt to arrange a extra formal assembly with the Bears,” John Dunn, of the Philadelphia-based Cozen and O’Connor regulation company, suggested board members as part of a legislative change all through the meeting.
Lobbyists for the Chicago Bears and the one for a trio of college districts that pull funding from the earlier horse racing venue have met informally about Senate Invoice 1350, a big property tax incentive bill which may divert billions in tax {{dollars}} away from school districts to encourage the soccer crew’s proposed redevelopment on the web site.
The bill is sponsored by state Sen. Anne Gillespie, D-Arlington Heights.
Dunn suggested the SD15 board that he and his two colleagues, Matt Glavin and Sydney Holman, have had “casual conversations” with representatives of the crew in Springfield about amending the bill.
With 5 weeks leftin the current legislative session, Dunn acknowledged he and his colleagues would “proceed our discussions with them to see if we are able to make some motion on reaching an settlement.”
Dunn moreover provided a window into plenty of the discussions his crew has needed to date, from legislative leaders to the governor’s office and completely different lobbying groups.
“We talked to Prepare dinner County. We had kind of temporary conversations with [the Illinois Federation of Teachers] and the Illinois Affiliation of College Boards and plenty of others,” he acknowledged.
The Bears formally bought the 326-acre property in February, capping better than a yearlong wait after the NFL crew had entered proper right into a $197 million purchase settlement with former web site proprietor Churchill Downs in September 2021.
The crew has proposed a sprawling, multi-billion dollar mixed-use redevelopment that may include industrial, residential and leisure areas, along with a domed NFL stadium.
The village has not however vetted any plans and is doing its private evaluation into what the infrastructure and monetary needs and impacts such a enchancment would pose, village leaders have acknowledged.
A 19-elementary school district, SD15, along with Palatine-Schaumburg Excessive College District 211 and Township Excessive College District 214, moved in February to lease lobbyists to represent the trio in Springfield after the megaproject SB1350 was launched.
Moreover Wednesday, Dunn walked board members by means of the development of the bill, which he characterised as being identical to a regular tax increment financing district.
“Technically, it’s not a TIF invoice, but it surely’s sort of the identical,” he acknowledged. “I’d name it a variation of TIF laws.”
SB1350 provides a framework throughout which builders investing better than $500 million in a enterprise could very properly be entitled to as a lot as 40 years’ value of tax breaks. The measure would allow for the property tax stage on a particular web site to remain flat for 23 years, nevertheless offers an risk to extend that freeze an additional 17 years if the city or village the place the enterprise is located finds that the occasion provides a “substantial public profit.”
The legal guidelines provides for a “fee in lieu of taxes,” or PILOT, {{that a}} developer would pay to the municipality — on excessive of the frozen property tax value, nevertheless decrease than what the developer would pay in an atypical setup. Dunn suggested board members the issue may very well be the price of the associated fee.
“If it’s an enormous quantity that may be nice for this district [and] the opposite two districts. And if it’s a small quantity, it will be nice for the Bears,” he acknowledged.
For the ultimate two months, the bill has been sitting inside the Assignments Committee of the Senate whereas its Home counterpart, HB 3565, is inside the legislative limbo of the Guidelines Committee. Mark Walker, D-Arlington Heights, is sponsoring the Home Invoice.
As part of the legal guidelines, the municipality may very well be required to distribute the PILOT within the similar proportions atypical property taxes are distributed to taxing our our bodies like school, library and mosquito abatement districts.
District 15 enrolls better than 20,000 faculty college students from the shut by cities of Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Arlington Heights and Inverness, in step with data on the district web page.
It pulls property tax earnings from Arlington Park, which the racecourse could be known as, and any enchancment picks stand to affect the district’s financial property, district leaders have acknowledged, and can moreover affect the number of district faculty college students if the residential a part of the Bears’ proposal entails fruition.
SD15 Superintendent Laurie Heinz wrote to Arlington Heights Village Supervisor Randy Recklaus as early as Might 2022 to induce the village in opposition to establishing a TIF district for the soccer crew, saying the switch would characterize a “actual concern” for the varsity district.
Dunn moreover cautioned board members that the legal guidelines at current on the desk solely constituted the “first inning.”
Then he corrected himself. Coping with the Chicago Bears, this was solely the first quarter, he acknowledged.
“That is their first shot at how they might fund this growth,” he acknowledged. “And I feel it stays to be seen if they arrive again to the desk with spherical two of how they search to fund it.”
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