On greed, duty and the Bears
A popular line of thought in the suburbs — and a somewhat understandable one — says the effort by three suburban school districts to hold the Chicago Bears’ feet to the fire on the assessed value of their new property in Arlington Heights risks a prospect that could be an unprecedented economic boon for the region.
What happens to that economic boon, the thinking goes, if the Bears fold up their architect’s drawings for a $5 billion housing and entertainment development and settle back in to their home in the city?
Certainly, there is some possibility that the assessment battle could induce the Bears to give up their suburban dabbling. But, another line of thought doesn’t seem to get as much attention and should.
What happens to those school districts and the taxpayers who support them if the Bears get a sweetheart tax deal on the Arlington Heights property and the schools find themselves with hundreds more students to educate and inadequate resources to do the job?
No school superintendent worthy of the title and certainly no school board member could ignore that question. That responsibility doesn’t justify excessive greed, of course, and the school districts have to recognize — as the superintendents of districts 15, 211 and 214 insisted in a conversation with us this week that they do — that a $5 billion development founded on a Bears stadium would have transformative ramifications for them as well as the entire region. But it is a responsibility they cannot ignore.
The Cook County Board of Review’s decision Wednesday affirming its previous ruling that the $192 million valuation placed on the former Arlington Park property by the county assessor gives this discussion curious dimensions. The Bears paid $197.2 million for the 326-acre site a year ago. The school districts have argued for a $160 million valuation; the Bears for $60 million. The two parties have two days in which to reach agreement on some other number to put before the review board, and the review board could still lower the valuation as early as next week.
So, the coming days may bring consequential news for the project. But it’s important to remember it will likely not be decisive, whatever it is.
This is a long and complicated process, and the matter of assessing levels of greed in the negotiations is neither easily decided nor entirely relevant. Soon enough, alarmist naysaying could turn in any of several new directions. Principal among them, of course, is the Bears organization itself, which is seeking financial support in various forms from the state and the village of Arlington Heights to help build a new stadium. Arlington Heights leaders surely could become targets as they wrestle with, among other options, complex mechanisms like creating Tax Increment Financing or Payment in Lieu of Taxes districts as potential lures. Chicago officials have made clear their intentions to keep the NFL franchise within the city limits, and the potential for self-serving disruption is simply mind boggling in Springfield — where, among many other relevant factors, more than a third of the legislative districts in both the Senate and the House are situated partially or entirely in the city and will have outsized influence in deciding whatever financial incentives the state could provide and where it could provide them.
Our primary interest is ensuring that all the parties act with integrity and a recognition of the full measure of what is at stake. Whether they be school official, village leader, state lawmaker or Bears executive, we hope that all who, like us, are excited about the prospects of this vision becoming reality share that concern.