Illinois just chased the Bears to Indiana after 106 years rather than approve a property tax break worth about $39M a year, on a stadium the team was funding with its own $2b
Here is what Springfield forfeited to protect that $39M:
- the jock tax and roster income tax on every NFL player who suits up there, roughly $15M a year
- state and local sales, amusement, and hotel taxes on a project the Bears projected at $1.3 billion in annual economic activity
-about 56,500 construction jobs and 9,000 permanent jobs
By the team’s own study, the new state tax revenue would have topped the entire public infrastructure ask by more than $400 million
They guarded one $39 million tax line and walked away from hundreds of millions a year in taxes, tens of thousands of jobs, and a 106 year old franchise.