The Bears brush up on their TIF knowledge

Public funding is infinite! [View this email in your browser]( [READER Logo]( Daily Reader | March 12, 2024 The Bears may have revealed the mystery of their proposed dream stadium with a weekend bombshell strategically leaked to their friends at Crain’s and the Sun-Times. No, the bombshell was not the location. We already knew that the Bears were eyeing the lakefront just south of Soldier Field. And it wasn’t that they are bailing on Arlington Heights. The Bears made that clear weeks ago, though they do reserve the right to try again there (should the local school districts cave and give them a bigger break on property taxes). Got to give those school boards credit, by the way. I never imagined they’d resist with such tenacity. I’m used to Chicago’s school boards giving developers pretty much what they want. No, over the weekend the Bears revealed how they will probably pay for their new stadium—with a TIF. What’s that you say? The Bears can’t spend Tax Increment Financing (TIF) money on a lakefront stadium because it’s tax-exempt parkland, owned by the public, and produces no property tax dollars? True. And, by the way, you have very impressive knowledge of how TIFs work. But from the story leaked to Crain’s and the Sun-Times, the Bears are not exactly billing this project as just a stadium just for them (though it is). No, they’re also billing it as a park for us, the little people of Chicago. And there’s a loophole in the TIF law (actually, more like a loop crater) that enables the city to take TIF dollars from one TIF district and spend it on projects in areas that are not in a TIF district. So long as those projects are for the public good. It’s how they built Millennium Park which, like the proposed Bears stadium site, was not in a TIF district. The idea is to promote the concept as a deal that’s all about leaving something for the people. In this case, some trees, grass, and maybe a bike path or running trail—whatever. The masses ask for so little, which, inevitably, is what they get. (Though, to his credit, Mayor Daley did a pretty good job with Millennium Park. Even I must concede that.) Anyway, my friends, that’s my guess as to what will be their play. To make you think this is for you as much as it’s for the Bears. It’s how they get you to think you’re getting something from this project—other than the bill. Until they came up with this park angle, the Bears were talking about paying for the stadium with hotel taxes. But then the White Sox cut them off at the knees, and got to lawmakers with their hotel tax request to pay for their ballyard while the Bears were still in the locker room putting on their cleats. A terrible metaphor, but you get the idea. This was impressive on both fronts: the quickness of the Sox to immediately go for the money and the dexterity of the Bears to immediately recover and come up with a new source of public funding. Now that I think of it—the Sox are also looking for TIF money. The beauty of it all, as I’ve discovered from writing so many TIF stories over the years, is that so few people understand how the program works. After a while, they give up even trying. To paraphrase Ernie Banks, [let’s fund two](. What the hell. It’s only money. [Logo with text: The Ben Joravsky Show. Features man wearing a cap and headphones, and Chicago flag stars.]( 🎙 [Listen to The Ben Joravsky Show]( 🎙 ◈ An Honest Man, [Michael Koryta’s]( latest thriller. Great suspense about a good man wrongly accused. ◈ Catey Sullivan: the ’80s live at [Black Ensemble Theater]( ◈ Ben Joravsky (from 2018): [how TIFs work]( (in case you forgot) ◈ Attorney [Adolfo Mondragon]( on the Supremes and their Colorado decision ◈ Nonprofit director and former aldermanic candidate [Denali Dasgupta]( on the mayor’s base ◈ Marine, human rights advocate, and political activist [Jauwan Hall-Bertrand]( on reparations, Nikki Haley, the Bulls, and more [The Delmarie plan for the Bears’s new stadium]( Put the Bears’s new stadium on the south side—or don’t help them build it at all. by [Ben Joravsky]( | [Read more]( → [For young students, the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival ‘makes school stuff seem real’]( The festival, now in its 13th iteration, asks local kids to adapt award-winning children’s books to film. by [Emma Oxnevad]( | [Read more]( → [Review: Ordinary Angels]( Thanks to a tight screenplay and down-to-earth cast, Ordinary Angels gives faith a good rap. by [Andrea Thompson]( | [Read more]( → [Review: A Revolution on Canvas]( A Revolution on Canvas seeks lost paintings—and lost hope—in Iran. by [Noah Berlatsky]( | [Read more]( → [Twihard embraces the cringe]( Otherworld’s Twilight musical parody goes hard. by [Amanda Finn]( | [Read more]( → We’ll see you at the zoo! 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