In Chicago Magazine appears an article by Edward Robert McClelland, is focused on whether it makes any significant difference if the Bears move the Indiana.
Embedded in it is this comments from the Americans for Prosperity Deputy Director Biran Co;slin:
Brian Costin, deputy state director of Americans for Prosperity Illinois, a conservative tax watchdog, is opposed to the megaprojects bill because it wouldn’t just apply to the Bears. Any new construction, whether a factory or an office tower, that costs at least $100 million and creates at least 100 jobs couldtrigger such a tax-freeze zone. “All of the risk is on the taxpayers,” Costin says. Once local governments are given the authority to negotiate lower payments, “they are incentivized to screw their taxpayers.”
In the case of a Bears stadium, Costin explains, a small taxing district, such as Community Consolidated School District 15, which operates PK–8 schools near the Arlington Heights site, could use the value of the project to justify an increase in its total tax levy over the next 10 years. And because the Bears wouldn’t be paying property taxes, other taxpayers would have to make up the gap. (Arlington Heights Mayor Jim Tinaglia disputes that residents’ property taxes will increase, telling Chicago, “I am 100 percent certain that no increase in private property taxes has ever been considered or requested for the development of the proposed NFL stadium. However, it would be ignorant to assume that existing properties won’t increase in property value, which could likely raise those individual property taxes accordingly.”)
The lithium battery storage facility or farm is estimated to cost $700 million, making it eligible for massive subsidies under the bill in question.
