Corporate Welfare

WHY ARE ILLINOIS TAXPAYERS SUBSIDIZING RICH SPORTS TEAM OWNERS?

By Scott Reeder -

SPRINGFIELD, IL – It appears, Pat Quinn cleared the way for his 30-year-old campaign aide, Lou Bertuca, to start drawing a $160,000-year taxpayer-funded salary heading the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority.

That agency owns the ballpark where the White Sox play and helped renovate Soldier Field, where the Chicago Bears play.

Some politicians are crying foul. They don’t think it is appropriate for a group of Quinn appointees on the ISFA

board to appoint someone new to be executive director of the authority when only weeks remain in the lame-duck governor’s term. After all, he’s not exactly coming off a winning season.

Bertuca was Quinn’s campaign manager. And he has no experience in professional sports. But he is buddies with the governor.

And in Springfield, it’s often not what you know, but who you know that lands you in a high-paid government job. Veteran political insiders will just shrug and say “That’s how it’s done.”

Well, folks, they are missing the bigger point.

Why on Earth are we giving tax dollars to subsidize the wealthy individuals who own professional sports teams?

It makes no sense.

It’s corporate welfare at its worst.

The best excuse I’ve heard is: Other states and cities do it.

Well, sports subsidies got their illegitimate birth right here in the Prairie State.

And there is no reason their death can’t begin here in the Land of Lincoln as well.

I witnessed first hand the traumatic delivery of the nation’s first major sports subsidy bill.

In the waning minutes of June 30, 1988, then-Gov. James Thompson literally was racing against the clock to pass a $120 million subsidy for the White Sox, who were threatening to move to Florida. The measure needed to pass before midnight, when the legislative session would go into overtime and a supermajority would be needed to pass legislation. The measure had the support of House Speaker Mike Madigan, a diehard Sox fan.

Former state Rep Bill Black, R-Danville, once told me this type of idea was a new concept in 1988.

“We have seen it happen over and over again across the country since then, but back then it was really unheard of,” he said. “This would not have even come to a vote without Mike Madigan. They said it was being done for economic development. But that area around the ballpark — I still call it Comiskey Park — hasn't improved. The only thing I can see that has changed is that Chicago has the highest or second-highest hotel taxes of any major American city.”

The White Sox paid no rent until 2008.

Since the club doesn't own the facility, it pays no property taxes.

The original Sox deal has led to others:

• The United Center, home to the Bulls and the Blackhawks, was privately financed, but the building has a special property tax break that saves the clubs millions in property taxes.

• In 2003, the Chicago Bears' Soldier Field renovation was completed with the assistance of a $387 million Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, or ISFA, bond, to be paid back with interest from Chicago hotel and motel taxes.

When the White Sox subsidy vote was brought before the House, a majority of lawmakers voted against the proposal. But instead of counting the votes, the presiding officer — a top Madigan lieutenant — left the roll call open as Thompson walked to the desks of each lawmaker voting “no” and persuaded them one by one to change their votes.

The last lawmaker necessary to make a majority switched his vote when the hands on the main clock in the House Chamber were a few minutes past midnight, but the presiding officer, Majority Leader Jim McPike, said it was a few minutes before midnight on his watch and declared the bill passed.

It was a sleazy beginning to a slimy practice of giving money to help the rich fellas who own sports teams.

Many other jurisdictions have followed Illinois’ lead in this shameful practice.

It’s time for Illinois to take the lead again and say “no” top these types of subsidies.   

Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse reporter and a journalist with Illinois News