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Speaker 1: Sure, there's no signed deal yet, but Wallmakers voted nearly unanimously,

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Speaker 1: sending a message that Indiana wants the Chicago Bears and

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Speaker 1: they're not afraid to use some creative financing to make

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Speaker 1: it happen, creative financing being the keyword there. So this

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Speaker 1: happened yesterday, voting overwhelmingly ninety five in favor for oppose,

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Speaker 1: the Indiana House of Representatives approved Senate Bill twenty seven,

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Speaker 1: and that would set the stage for the Chicago Bears

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Speaker 1: to come to Hammond. And now this is going to

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Speaker 1: go back to the Senate and if they approve it,

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Speaker 1: it'll head to the Governor's desk.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, more and more details keep coming

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Speaker 2: out about this as this bill advances. And what I

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Speaker 2: find the most interesting part of this is there seems

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Speaker 2: to be a little bit of a funding gap. They'll

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Speaker 2: tell you there isn't it a little bit? Well, you know,

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Speaker 2: Indiana is going to contribute about a billion dollars to this,

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Speaker 2: and it's going to be done through these new use

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Speaker 2: taxes that are lying out in this bill. And there's

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Speaker 2: going to be a food and beverage tax and it's

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Speaker 2: estimated that'll you know, earn about ten million dollars a year.

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Speaker 2: And then there's going to be you know, a hotel tax,

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Speaker 2: and that'll be in about another five or ten million

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Speaker 2: dollars a year. And then there's going to be a

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Speaker 2: tax on every ticket to any event, whether it's the

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Speaker 2: Bears or not in that stadium of twelve percent, and

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Speaker 2: that looks like that'll be about another ten to fifteen

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Speaker 2: million dollars. So you've got about this thirty five million

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Speaker 2: dollars a year in taxes that they've lined up. But

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Speaker 2: the state is going to be spending a billion dollars

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Speaker 2: to build the stadium. There seems to be a bit

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Speaker 2: of a shortfall. And then there's this general catch all

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Speaker 2: that people are talking about of well, there'll be some

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Speaker 2: other taxes in the future. Maybe we'll steal some money

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Speaker 2: from the Indiana Toll Road that's up in the northern

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Speaker 2: part of the state, or maybe we'll levy some income

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Speaker 2: taxes to northern Indiana or do some other things. That's

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Speaker 2: really the problem I see is that the math isn't

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Speaker 2: lining up, and the part that's left unsaid is is

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Speaker 2: are these additional potential taxes that'll come down the road.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so you've got conservatives talking about economic development and

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Speaker 1: taxpayer is getting a return on investment and they're just

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Speaker 1: hoping that this will lead to economic development, jobs and

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Speaker 1: also infrastructure improvements. Is very much like putting the cart

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Speaker 1: before the horse in this situation. Again, I go back

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Speaker 1: to creative financing. That is the key word there, because

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Speaker 1: they don't have it all the bottom line, as you mentioned,

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Speaker 1: not adding up.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't see or at least what we're being

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Speaker 2: told we added up.

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Speaker 1: Again.

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Speaker 2: Sure, there's this massive funding gap that I see there

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Speaker 2: because the math isn't working for me, and their answer

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Speaker 2: to it is this fuzziness of Oho, there'll be other

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Speaker 2: taxes that will be included there, and of course my

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Speaker 2: guess is those are going to be the most extreme

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Speaker 2: taxes and the ones that people will be the most

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Speaker 2: upset about. And I think all of this is being

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Speaker 2: done at the end of the day. Again, my prediction

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Speaker 2: is the Chicago Bears will stay and they'll choose Arlington Heights.

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Speaker 2: They'll go to Arlington Heights because I just do not

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Speaker 2: see the Bears. And again, the Chicago Bears have been

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Speaker 2: owned by the Hallis and the Macafski family since they

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Speaker 2: were started one hundred years ago. It's the same family

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Speaker 2: that started it that runs it today. They've been ingrained

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Speaker 2: in Chicago. I think that for them personally, it would

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Speaker 2: be too difficult for them to pull the trigger and

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Speaker 2: move the Bears out of the city of Illinois. Shoot,

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Speaker 2: I think it's going to be hard for them to

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Speaker 2: even pull out of the city of Chicago and Soldier Field.

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Speaker 2: I think that's going to be tough for the mccaskey's

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Speaker 2: to do. But I think the city of Chicago left

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Speaker 2: them no other choice. I mean, there was nothing they

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Speaker 2: could do there. So they bought this option in Arlington

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Speaker 2: Heights where they bought the old Arlington Heights Racetrack, and

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Speaker 2: they're going to build there and eventually I think they'll

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Speaker 2: make that final decision. By the way, it looks like

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Speaker 2: that there is a committee meeting and vote that is

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Speaker 2: scheduled in the Illinois legislature for tomorrow. Now we know

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Speaker 2: what happened last time Illinois legislator had a committee vote.

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Speaker 2: They canceled that because it was the Indiana vote that

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Speaker 2: was happening the same day. So we'll see if that

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Speaker 2: one happens. But if it does take place, we could

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Speaker 2: get some more information from the Illinois lawmakers as early

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Speaker 2: as tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: And that could definitely sway a decision for the Bears.

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Speaker 1: Of course, you've got no formal, signed deal with the Bears.

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Speaker 1: That doesn't exist just yet