Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson jabs Pritzker amid Bears saga: ‘I’m not a billionaire’
CHICAGO - Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson responded to criticism from Gov. JB Pritzker over his last-minute push to keep the Bears at Soldier Field and referenced the governor’s wealth while continuing to argue that the team should not leave for the suburbs.
Johnson made the comments on Tuesday on The Matt McGill Show on WVON when he was asked to respond to Pritzker saying the mayor was "late to the game" as state lawmakers try to pass legislation the team wants to build a new stadium in Arlington Heights.
RELATED: Pritzker blasts Johnson’s last-minute push to keep Bears in Chicago
What they're saying:
The mayor conceded that his approach to the issue wasn’t perfect, but argued that state lawmakers and the team pushing for the so-called "megaprojects" bill was "undermining" Chicago, which he referred to as the state’s "economic engine."
"Retrospectively, could I have approached things differently? Of course," Johnson said. "I’m always going to be retrospective about ‘Should have I said something differently?’ But even that, though, Matt, that’s not a reason to undermine the economic engine of the entire region."
Johnson appeared to argue that pushing for property tax breaks for the Bears was antithetical to lawmakers’ responsibility to their constituents. Then, the mayor referenced Pritzker’s wealth, which was pegged at nearly $4 billion, according to Forbes.
"The difference or the disconnect is, look, we do come from different experiences," Johnson said. "I’m not a billionaire. I’m not the heir of billions of dollars. I’m a working-class brotha that was teaching middle school a handful of years ago."
Johnson continued, "The real struggle that I experience, the governor and I had different upbringings. He doesn’t know what it’s like to open up a refrigerator and ain’t no food in it. He doesn’t know what it’s like to have a long orange extension cord from our window to our neighbor’s window just to keep electricity flowing."
The mayor has repeatedly slammed the legislative effort to provide significant property tax relief for the Bears, a corporation with about $8 billion, to build a private stadium. The Bears have played their home games at Soldier Field, which is owned by the Chicago Park District, since the early 1970s.
But the Bears said years ago that Soldier Field was no longer suitable to provide a prime experience for their fans. The team first began the purchase of the Arlington Park land back in 2021 and have gone back and forth over where to build a new stadium. At one point, Bears President Kevin Warren and Johnson announced an effort to build a new lakefront stadium, which would be mostly funded without taxpayer money.
Johnson appeared to reference that short-lived proposal in his comments on Tuesday, arguing it was the best deal for the people of Chicago.
But the Bears later said that plan was not economically feasible after lawmakers in Illinois were disinclined to give any taxpayer money for the construction of the actual stadium.
Still, Johnson has argued that losing the Bears would be a blow to the city’s economy and to workers and fans who live in the city. While the team has been clear that they will decide between Arlington Heights and Hammond, Indiana, Johnson has continued his push to keep the team in Chicago.
"To deny the people of Chicago an opportunity for our plan to be debated, that is malpractice, and it’s derelict of duty, and I’m always gonna fight for Chicago," he said. "I don’t care who you are. I’m going to fight … if it means protecting our people."
Pritzker responds
The govenor was asked about Johnson's comments at an event at Lincoln Land Community College on Wednesday.
"I think it’s about our values, right?" Pritzker said. "What is it that we want to do? Do we want to spend two-and-a-half billion dollars of taxpayer dollars on the Chicago Bears, or do we want to spend a lot less than that in order to keep the Chicago Bears in Illinois? So my response is, I think it’s about your values. It’s about what you really care about in life and who you focus on, and I’ve focused on the working class, the middle class and people most vulnerable throughout my career and I think people across Illinois know that."
Pritzker stressed that there's only "one opportunity" to keep the Bears in the state, and that's to pass the megaprojects bill so the team can build in Arlington Heights.
"[The Bears] decided that they don’t want to be and can’t be in Chicago and so there’s really only one other option, and I want them to stay in the city," Pritzker said. "I think people who are opposed to the bill don’t want them to stay in the city. So that was really the nature of my, to the extent it was criticism, my criticism."
Finally, Pritkzer was asked if he had reached out to Johnson since their exchange of criticism.
"No. We’re all busy," he said. "The mayor and I are friends, even if we disagree on some things here and there. So there’s no real need to reach out. The legislature is gonna work on it this week and I’m hopeful that the people who want to tank the bill are not successful."