And I’ll bet a lot of taxpayers up in The Region aren’t, either.
The IndyStar (gag) sez
There is now a “shared commitment” to bring the Chicago Bears to Indiana.
Indiana lawmakers announced Feb. 19 that they’ve struck a deal to potentially locate the football team’s new stadium in northwest Indiana, pending the passage of a bill that provides the framework for a financial package and any due diligence at the proposed Hammond site. This comes nearly two months to the day from the team president’s fateful letter that sparked breathless negotiations.
I see. Perhaps the legislators should be committed. To a mental hospital.
“It represents a transformational investment for northwest Indiana and our state,” House Speaker Todd Huston told the House ways and means committee, sharing that the Chicago Bears are willing to invest $2 billion in a stadium site in the region.
In other words, plenty of graft for everyone.
Indiana lawmakers, too, in the form of Senate Bill 27, have outlined a set of investment promises from the state, Lake and Porter counties to bring the stadium to fruition.
“The passage of SB 27 would mark the most meaningful step forward in our stadium planning efforts to date,” the Bears said in a statement. “We are committed to finishing the remaining site-specific necessary due diligence to support our vision to build a world-class stadium near the Wolf Lake area in Hammond, Indiana.”
In other words, even more graft for everyone.
The announcement Feb. 19 is by no means a final deal, and Gov. Mike Braun, who has been involved in negotiations, made that clear in his statement, calling this a “framework for negotiating a final deal.”
Let’s hope it’s not a final deal, and let’s hope the Guv makes the Bears pay for the whole thing, instead of doing what the City of Indianapolis did some years back in building a billion-dollar stadium the Colts now pretty much own in fee-simple (they don’t, but they make almost every dollar that’s to be made there).
For what it’s worth, I don’t trust the Guv to not fuck this up like he fucked up promised property tax “reductions”.
In addition to the $2 billion the Bears are willing to put toward infrastructure and stadium construction, the state of Indiana is pledging to back bonds that would be repaid with tax revenue from the site as well as the city of Hammond and Lake and Porter counties.
Those tax sources, which the local governments have yet to approve, include: revenue captured from a professional sports developing taxing area around the stadium, a 12% admissions tax on large events held in the city of Hammond, a county-wide 1% food and beverage tax in Lake and Porter counties, and a 5% innkeepers tax in Lake County.
Similar to how the state supported the construction of Lucas Oil stadium, the state would make an appropriation to back the bonds, but plans to never actually use it.
“The people using the facility are going to be the ones paying for it,” Huston said.
This is complete bullshit. Guaranteed. How do you know when an Indiana lawmaker is lying? His lips move. Look, if you have a 1% tax on food and beverage in Lake and Porter Counties, that means the residents will be paying that tax, not just “the people using the facility”. If you add a 5% innkeepers tax in Lake County, that means anyone staying in a hotel there for any reason — not just “the people using the facility” — will pay that tax. The 12% admissions tax to large events held in the city of Hammond will be charged for every large event in Hammond, even if it doesn’t take place in the stadium — again, it won’t be paid by just “the people using the facility”. And when the whole thing fails or has to be refinanced or whatever, those bonds the state says it will back with an appropriation it will never actually use will be paid by…you guessed it…not just “the people using the facility”.
Publicly-funded athletic stadii are little more than a boondoggle, and the citizens of the area ought to rise up and say, “Not just no, but HELL NO.” (Prediction: They won’t, because they believe the bullshit.)
The bill also allows the state to renegotiate the terms of the state’s lease with the Indiana Toll Road and use those proceeds to pay for infrastructure projects, including those tied to the stadium development, in the seven counties on Indiana’s northern border.
This is fucking ridiculous. The Toll Road is supposed to pay for the Toll Road. Oh wait, I forgot, we leased the Toll Road out to make money off of it. Never mind. Plenty of graft to go around.
Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott said he was skeptical when talks started out over the holidays, like many others. But now he is confident that the Bears will follow through on this commitment, and that it would completely change the look and feel of his city of less than 100,000 people.
Hammond is no Chicago, he noted, which already has fancy steakhouses and theatre districts and entertainment aplenty.
“In Hammond, we don’t have Ruth’s Chris. We don’t have high rise hotels. This stadium project is going to bring all of that,” he said. “We’re going to make a Bearsville right outside the stadium. It’s going to be a whole separate city within the city of Hammond. I think it’s going to be absolutely transformational for my city.”
No doubt it will be transformational in ways you will seriously regret ten to twenty years down the line. (I give you, for instance, the City of Carmel, Indiana, which is probably headed into the dumpster in not too many more years.) But in the meantime, hey, graft for everyone!
Except for the people who actually live there, of course. Who will be the ones who end up paying and paying and paying and paying, ad infinitum, saecula saeculorum, amen, for the Bears’ fancy new stadium.
Glad I don’t live up in that wretched hive of scum and villany. The one I live in is bad enough.