From outrage to enthusiasm to everything in between, Porter County elected officials have a range of reactions to the request being made of them to raise a 1% food and beverage tax in order to bring the Chicago Bears to Hammond.
Porter County Council President Andy Vasquez, R-4th, and Vice President Red Stone, R-1st, were in Indianapolis Thursday morning for a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee, where Senate Bill 27, which would establish a Northwest Indiana stadium authority for the purpose of acquiring and financing such a facility, was unanimously approved on amendment.
“It’s not really that much of an ask,” Vasquez said of the 1%, adding that state lawmakers and the Bears were initially asking for a 10% innkeepers tax, but he told them Porter County already has a 5% innkeepers tax and is unwilling to raise it. He said the county would get a lot out of that 1% tax.
“I’m not an engineer, but it’s a big building and they’ll have to tear some buildings down, so there’s some work,” he said of potential jobs to come from a new stadium in the region. “It’s going to be the biggest thing that happened to us since our steel mills went down.”
While he hasn’t been given any projected revenues, Vasquez thinks the council would vote to pass the 1% tax. “The only reason this has been considered by the county council is that we believe the return on the investment would be a lot better than if we didn’t do it,” he said. “They want more than that (1%), I think I would have a problem with that.” He would also like to see contracts signed and work about to commence before passing the tax.
Porter County Commissioner Jim Biggs, R-North, finds it egregious for the state to have told municipalities less than a year ago they needed to do less with more, but are now expecting them to pass a new tax. “We’re not talking about a first-rate trauma center,” he said. “Help this billionaire who owns this team and the millionaires who play for it make this possible.”
“God bless, Hammond. I’m glad you’re getting it, but just don’t look east for help. We can’t help ourselves,” Biggs added. Formally, county commissioners have no say in the fate of any proposed tax, as a simple majority vote by the county council would be required to pass a food and beverage tax, but Biggs says he’ll use his influence to encourage Porter County residents to vote out of office any Republican on the council who votes for such a tax.
“You didn’t have the courage to pass a county-wide public safety tax, why in God’s green earth would you even consider passing a food and beverage tax for a stadium that would benefit another county?” he asked.
He also doesn’t accept the argument that Porter County will benefit from customers trickling over from a stadium in Hammond. “I don’t buy for a minute that they’re going to jump into their car to drive to Porter County to eat in restaurants or go to the dunes.”
Biggs brought up the $3.5 million Porter County has been required by state statute to contribute annually since 2007 to the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority in the name of economic development. “Take some of that,” he said.
Stone also brought up the nearly $70 million the county has paid into that fund.
“We haven’t gotten the projects out of it,” he said. He wants to make sure that doesn’t happen again, but is declining to take a stance on the food and beverage tax “because I have zero economic numbers. I don’t know what a 1% food and beverage tax would create. I don’t vote on things unless I know what we’re getting out of them.”
Stone is thrilled for Hammond and thinks Mayor Tom McDermott did an excellent job courting the Bears, but he doesn’t feel banding together with Lake County in negotiations is appropriate. “No, we’re our own county. We have our own constituents,” he said. “If this amendment goes through, I want to make sure it gets built by our people,” he added, saying those people should be union labor. “We’re not going to have people coming in from Tennessee.”
For fellow Councilman Greg Simms, D-3rd, “if” is the crux of the question. “You think the Bears are going to come? We’ve heard this for years,” he said. The talk of moving to Indiana could be a ploy to get what they want from Illinois, he said.
Let them commit and spell out their wants and needs before talk of taxes, Simms said. “What if we say, ‘No’? Are they not going to come?”
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
