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Resident urges village to use leverage if professional football team returns to Arlington Heights
Summary
A resident warned that a returning professional football franchise could seek large property-tax subsidies and urged the village to secure community investments in exchange; the mayor said any announcement would trigger a public process.
Resident Keith Mones urged the Village Board to use community leverage if a professional football franchise announces plans to locate in Arlington Heights, telling trustees the village is “in the driver's seat” to negotiate community benefits in exchange for property-tax subsidies.
Mones said the returning franchise—described in his remarks as the “billionaire Arlington Heights Bears”—would likely seek property-tax subsidies such as a tax-increment financing district (TIF), a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) or other long-term tax arrangements. He referenced a schools memorandum of understanding that, he said, would freeze property assessments “for 23 to 40 years” and criticized past closed-door approvals; he urged the village to press for funds for education, affordable housing, infrastructure, public health and street safety as part of any negotiation.
President Tonali responded from the dais that there are no secret closed-door meetings and that if a team announces intent to come to Arlington Heights “there'll be a process that is going to begin and there'll be an enormous amount of opportunity for every resident, every business owner to become educated and participate in all the dialogue that's gonna happen.” Tonali added that the board “will all have something to say” and that the board was “committed to work for our neighborhoods.”
No board action, referrals, or formal negotiations were recorded during the meeting; the remarks occurred during the public-comment period. The board did not identify any pending application from a franchise during the session, and staff made no commitment to formal negotiations at this meeting.
Mones’s remarks also included a policy prescription that the village use its negotiating leverage to secure community investments commensurate with any tax concessions granted to a major project.
