I moved back to Chicago 😁
But I personally don’t see much of a burden for Chicago & Illinois taxpayers. I don’t think a few % point of taxes on hotels has much meaning on travel considerations for tourists or conventioners for that matter. And subsidizing property taxes for major sports organizations that provide the area with jobs and other forms of tax revenue doesn’t seem that unreasonable to me.
Honestly, I don’t think the state funding these stadiums via a hotel tax has any noticeable impact on the quality of any of our lives. But it would provide us with two much better stadiums / areas to watch and experience Chicago sports in for generations to come. To me, funding these are a no-brainer if they can agree to terms that are a bit more friendly to Illinois taxpayers than the past ones (for example, no free rent when attendance sucks). I’m less concerned about the billionaires receiving handouts because frankly that’s the status quo and I’m not drawing the line with my franchise.