Arlington Heights officers rejected a petition to ban village monetary incentives for the Chicago Bears or every other enterprise, stating that the petition didn’t have sufficient legitimate signatures — and warning that such a transfer would harm companies and taxpayers.
The petition requires the village to create an “Anti-Corporate Welfare Ordinance” that may prohibit any monetary or different incentive to a enterprise to function within the village. The petition was submitted by Americans for Prosperity Illinois, a part of a libertarian group backed by the conservative Koch brothers.
Mayor Tom Hayes referred to as the proposal “a terrible idea,” saying it could prohibit any form of tax break and even public parking that could possibly be thought-about a monetary incentive for enterprise. He added that any suggestion of cronyism amongst village officers was “patently false and baseless.”
Last 12 months, the Bears entered right into a preliminary buy settlement to purchase Arlington International Racecourse from Churchill Downs Inc. for $197 million. The workforce goes via due diligence to see whether or not the 326-acre website would meet all necessities earlier than closing the deal late this 12 months or early subsequent 12 months.
To make a transfer to Arlington Heights, the workforce must pay to interrupt its lease at Soldier Field in Chicago, the place the workforce has performed for half a century. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has proposed topping the stadium with a $2 billion dome.
Team officers have mentioned they’d not search taxpayer help to construct the stadium however would want public help to construct infrastructure for the adjoining $5 billion growth to function housing, places of work, retail and leisure.
A village ordinance permits the village board to think about approving a referendum on a petition if it will get supporting signatures from 1% of registered voters, or 557 individuals.
Americans for Prosperity Illinois submitted 667 signatures Sept. 6, however some signatures didn’t match registered signatures, had no signature, had incorrect or no names, or the signees didn’t reside in Arlington Heights, leaving solely 544 legitimate signatures, Village Manager Randall Recklaus mentioned.
Petitioners might all the time add extra signatures. If the board nonetheless rejects the proposal, petitioners might get signatures from 12% of registered voters to place the measure on the poll.
Americans for Prosperity has mentioned a referendum could be binding, however village legal professional Hart Passman mentioned it could not, saying that nothing within the ordinance or state legislation gives for it to be binding.
Recklaus gave an outline of how tax incentives have been very profitable in attracting and holding companies that decrease householders’ property tax burden.
Most considerably, he mentioned, the village’s downtown was efficiently rebuilt via a Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, district. Under the TIF, any will increase in property taxes from downtown had been plowed again into enhancements of the world, equivalent to utilities and roads.
While the TIF was in impact from 1983 to 2006, annual property tax income elevated from $650,000 to $6.5 million, he mentioned. Once the TIF expired after 23 years, that cash was distributed to all native taxing our bodies.
The end result has been a thriving downtown, with high-rise condominiums and flats, eating places, a theater and three public parking areas. A ban on incentives might even be interpreted to ban public parking, and to get rid of use of village streets for the downtown’s al fresco eating, Recklaus mentioned.
Other village packages have offered gross sales tax rebates and low-interest or forgivable loans to assist companies survive the COVID pandemic or different points.
In the case of the Bears, a TIF might pay for brand spanking new sewers and different infrastructure, equivalent to proposed new ramps to take site visitors from Route 53 underneath Northwest Highway and railroad tracks to the stadium.
While some TIFs and stadium tasks elsewhere have failed, Recklaus mentioned, any new Arlington Heights TIF would solely be accredited whether it is proven that it could generate income to greater than pay for all village bills. Prohibiting such offers would put the village at a extreme aggressive drawback, and sure diminish its tax base.
Americans for Prosperity launched a latest ballot which discovered that 68% of Arlington Heights voters polled opposed utilizing tax {dollars} for the Bears, in contrast with 22% in help. The ballot additionally discovered that 55% supported the anti-corporate welfare ordinance.
The group’s deputy state director, Brian Costin, beforehand issued an announcement that learn: ”Arlington Heights is proposing the most important company welfare deal in Village historical past for a billionaire proprietor within the richest sports activities leisure firm on this planet. Not solely is that this particular therapy unfair to residents and different enterprise house owners, however a overwhelming majority of economists polled on sports activities stadium subsidies discovered them to be a nasty deal for taxpayers.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com