As Indiana lawmakers take a victory lap following their vote to try to lure the Chicago Bears to the state, Gov. Mike Braun is revealing how the talks began.<\/p>\n
During an interview with ESPN\u2019s \u201cPat McAfee Show,\u201d Braun revealed that the Bears approached state lawmakers because of stagnated negotiations in Illinois.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came to us. We didn\u2019t try to lure them because they thought there was no interest (in Illinois),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Indiana Senate overwhelmingly approved the financial framework of a deal to build a new stadium in Hammond. In all, the state would be willing to kick in $1 billion, with increased food and beverage taxes in Lake and Porter counties, a doubling of Lake County\u2019s hotel tax, and a 12% tax on tickets sold to the venue.<\/p>\n
The Bears expressed gratitude to Indiana lawmakers for the deal, saying that the state has \u201ctaken important steps over the last few months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile in Springfield, Illinois lawmakers made progress on a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) bill that would lock in property tax rates for so-called \u201cmega developments,\u201d which would include a Bears stadium.<\/p>\n
A committee passed the measure, but the House will not vote on the measure until after the primary election next month.<\/p>\n
The Bears did not issue a statement after the vote, though the legislature will remain in session through the end of May.<\/p>\n
Another wrinkle that emerged Thursday was a representative of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson testifying to the committee, expressing a desire to convince the team to build a stadium on the Museum Campus.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIndiana\u2019s Senate approved a bill to lure the Chicago Bears to the state, and Mary Ann Ahern has the latest details.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city is requesting a fair and equitable opportunity in these negotiations,\u201d Steve Mahr said.<\/p>\n
Some Chicago lawmakers have expressed skepticism about incentivizing the Bears to leave the city, leaving the fate of legislation up in the air as negotiations continue in Springfield.<\/p>\n
To address that, State Rep. Kam Buckner, whose district includes Soldier Field, says there could be concessions arranged from the team to pay the city money as it exits for a new stadium.<\/p>\n
For now, Indiana has a deal in place, and the Bears will be left to evaluate how negotiations are proceeding in Illinois as they decide where to build their new home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Indiana lawmakers take a victory lap following their vote to try to lure the Chicago Bears to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,10655,692,391,2493,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-778998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-bears-stadium","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bears","12":"tag-chicagobears","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116140404762930294","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}