Any new stadium the Chicago Bears may decide to build in Northwest Indiana will have union labor after all.
The amended Senate Bill 27, which would establish a stadium governing body and require that the National Football League enter a 35-year lease with the state for it, removed language that would prohibit the Chicago Bears from entering into project-labor agreements with the trades. The bill, upon the Thursday announcement of a preferred site next to Wolf Lake in Hammond, has added more state representatives as sponsors, but it has not advanced since getting a first reading in the House on February 2.
“My goal in assisting with this legislation has always been to make sure that if the stadium was going to be built, it was going to be built with local labor and by qualified trades, but I also don’t want the brunt of this to be paid for on taxpayers’ backs,” Pol said in a text to the Post-Tribune Friday. “One percent does not sound like that much, but times are very tough for working class people right now.”
Nevertheless, Pol believes an NFL stadium in Northwest Indiana can only benefit The Region as a whole.
“Porter County has always been a tourist destination with the only National Park in Indiana, so adding the Chicago Bears to Lake County will only bolster both economies,” Pol said. “In the end, this is going to be transformational for us if it comes to fruition.”
Northwestern Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council Business Manager Randy Palmateer said he worked with House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, and the Governor Mike Braun’s office to get the language taken out. In the end, he said they all agreed on labor’s value in a project of this magnitude and that he would be seeking a project labor agreement on the stadium project “along with any ancillary development.”
“Project labor agreements signed with my building trade Council are commonplace in The Region. They may not be in the rest of the state, but they are up north,” he said. “We are not getting away from that for no one.”
SB 27 would establish a three-member authority: the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the public finance director or designee, and another member appointed by the Office of Management and Budget, the Post-Tribune previously reported. The authority would work toward acquiring, financing, constructing and leasing land and capital improvements.
It would also have the power to finance, improve, construct, reconstruct, renovate, purchase, lease, acquire, and equip land and capital improvements, according to the bill.
The bill would require a National Football League team to enter into a lease for the stadium for at least 35 years. After the term of the lease, the lessee would have the option to purchase the capital improvement for $1 if certain conditions are met.
Under the bill, the authority could issue bonds, and the lease rental payments could be made from local excise taxes, food and beverage tax and innkeeper’s tax.
The Senate Appropriations Committee amended the bill to remove the authority’s goal of 15% participation by minority businesses and 5% participation from women’s businesses to participate in the procurement and contracting process, the Post-Tribune previously reported, to align with the governor’s executive order that vowed to remove diversity, equity and inclusion language from state code.
The Lake County Council at a meeting earlier this month also approved 6-0, with one absent, an ordinance requiring the use of a project labor agreement negotiated with the local units when a project in unincorporated Lake County receives an economic incentive to locate here, regardless of the board, commission or body that awards the incentive. Economic incentives include — but are not limited to — tax abatements or Tax Increment Financing districts.
“The ordinance provides for the negotiation of a mutually acceptable PLA with contractors, developers or similar entities who received an economic incentive from Lake County with local labor unions representing experienced and skilled construction workers covering construction, alteration or repair work where Lake County or any other county entity has an interest in the project,” said a press release announcing the ordinance. “The ordinance also includes a provision preventing developers, contractors or subcontractors who receive an incentive from misclassifying employees to avoid paying state, federal or local payroll taxes, workers compensation insurance and unemployment insurance among other issues.
