Springfield Deadline: Bears Stadium Bill Shrinks as $56 Billion Budget Race Hits Sunday Midnight

The clock is ticking in Springfield. Illinois lawmakers face a constitutional deadline of midnight Sunday to pass a $56 billion state budget while simultaneously negotiating a last-minute deal to keep the Chicago Bears from moving to Indiana.

The five-year fight over the Bears stadium reached a critical turning point this week as legislators considered dramatically scaling back a sweeping megaprojects bill. The original House measure offered property tax incentives for large-scale development projects across the entire state. Senate leaders are now whittling it down to focus almost exclusively on the Bears.

The Bears' Arlington Heights Gamble

The Chicago Bears own a 326-acre site in Arlington Heights that they purchased for $197.2 million in February 2023. The team has said a payments-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, agreement is essential to building a new stadium there. Without it, potential property taxes could exceed $100 million per year.

Indiana has already passed legislation that would provide upwards of $1 billion in taxpayer funding for a Bears stadium in Hammond. The Bears have repeatedly threatened to move across the state line if Illinois does not act.

"We don't know how many megaprojects there are going to be, and we don't know how much the recipient in the megaproject is going to pay, so because of that, we have no idea of what the amount of money available for property tax relief is," said State Sen. Bill Cunningham, the South Side Democrat leading the Senate's megaproject discussions.

The House version of the bill included a provision directing half of PILOT payments toward residential property tax relief. But analyses from the offices of Gov. JB Pritzker and Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas concluded that relief would be negligible for homeowners.

Mayor Johnson Complicates the Deal

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson added another layer of friction. During a visit to Springfield in early May, he raised the possibility of reviving a $4.7 billion lakefront stadium proposal that Pritzker and lawmakers rejected in 2024.

A key state senator told reporters that negotiations slowed because Johnson's comments caused Chicago-area lawmakers to drag their feet on the Senate's compromise effort.

Pritzker publicly clashed with Johnson, insisting the mayor had "no plan" for a new Bears lakefront stadium. Johnson countered that the 2024 proposal never received a "fair" hearing in Springfield.

The $56 Billion Budget Fight

The budget remains the legislature's top priority. Lawmakers filed a 3,178-page spending plan earlier this month outlining more than $53 billion in base spending. The final $2 billion-plus in appropriations and new revenue sources are still being negotiated behind closed doors.

Progressive Democrats are pushing for new taxes to offset cuts Pritzker proposed in his budget and to counter reductions to federal social programs. Moderate Democrats resist any tax increase in an election year.

"That is the number one thing we're going to get done. Making progress," Pritzker told reporters outside his Capitol office Friday.

Senate President Don Harmon described the budget negotiations as balancing "an infinite request for spending and a finite amount of resources."

Gas Tax Pause on the Table

Lawmakers are also debating whether to suspend a scheduled gas tax increase set to take effect July 1. The Illinois gas tax would rise by 1.3 cents per gallon, from 48.3 cents to 49.6 cents. The diesel tax would increase from 55.8 cents to 57.1 cents.

Pritzker signaled openness to a temporary pause, citing high gas prices driven by the U.S. war in Iran. Indiana and Georgia have already suspended their gas tax increases.

GOP Rep. Ryan Spain of Peoria introduced legislation to pause the tax hike through the end of the year.

"With the high gas prices that are hurting people right now throughout the state and throughout the country ... this is something that we can actively do to make a difference in Illinois," Spain said.

What Happens If They Miss the Deadline

If lawmakers fail to pass key legislation by midnight Sunday, a special session would be required. Under the Illinois Constitution, the voting threshold rises from a simple majority to a three-fifths majority. That would require 71 votes in the House and 36 votes in the Senate.

The Senate was scheduled to reconvene Saturday at 1 p.m. The House did not plan to meet again until 5 p.m. Sunday, leaving just hours before the constitutional deadline.

With tensions rising among Democratic supermajorities and the Bears' future hanging in the balance, Springfield's final legislative weekend promises long nights and hard choices.