Good morning, everyone. Nice to see you, and happy to take any questions that you may have.
Hi, Governor. I am good, thank you. Can you talk a little bit about the redistricting concerns that Democrats have? And would you push for the Illinois legislature to redraw maps to pull in Democrats from the southern part, or to pull in voters from the southern part of the state, to create a more Democratic map?
Well, let's start with a recognition that the president is trying to cheat. He's been trying to do this all year now, getting mid-decade redistricting done across the nation. And then, of course, he appointed the Supreme Court justices that have now struck down the Voting Rights Act provision that protects Black and brown people and minorities across the United States. Here in Illinois, we have a voting rights provision of our constitution that is constitutional, and we intend to stand up for that. The question of whether or not we would redistrict is really a question about how practical that would be in Illinois. Also, the fact that I challenged Indiana that if they were going to do it, we would consider seriously doing it. They did not. So I think that is telling anyway. I think we have some power in this. But you know, I think in consultation with the delegation, with other Democrats, how to respond to what the president has done to voting rights, attacking Black and brown people across the United States. That's something that we're all considering.
Governor. Good morning. I want to ask you about the Chicago Bears, where negotiations stand, and specifically, there's been some questions and concerns from mayors in the surrounding towns around Arlington Heights, Rolling Meadows and Schaumburg. They want a seat at the table, and they're concerned that the traffic study still is not complete three years after they bought the site, and what that means for infrastructure and all those details that can be moved on going forward. So essentially, if you could respond to their concerns about the traffic study, and they want a seat at the table as well.
Well, that's a conversation between those municipalities and the Bears. You know, as to the prospects for passage of a bill or, you know, what might happen with the Bears, I mean, I would say I know that the mayor has no plan. He has come up with no plan at all about how the Bears would end up in the city of Chicago. So that's problematic. I'd love them to be in the city, but we're three years in now and he still has no plan. So the Bears have said publicly, and I think they said so last Friday again, that they have now only two options, and that's the state of Indiana or Arlington Heights. We would like them to stay in the state of Illinois, and so I'm fighting hard to make sure that they can do that. And also very importantly, because my north star is protecting the taxpayers of Illinois, that we have something that works for the state of Illinois, that's fair, as we are being fair with other businesses that want to come to Illinois or expand here, that we're being fair in the allocation of support for a business expanding in the state while also protecting taxpayers across the state.
Are you getting it done before May 31st?
You know, that's in the legislature's hands, as you know. I mean, I put the structure of a deal together with the mayors, and now the Senate has some work to do. I think, you know, they're going to make changes to the bill, no doubt. But I would expect that we'll see something before May 31st, and that both houses, the Senate and the House, would vote on that.
What about your health concerns from last week? What happened, and is there anything...
I guess I'd start by saying I'm a 61-year-old healthy man who has never had any life-threatening illnesses, still don't. And in any case, if I had something that would interfere with my ability to do my job or my longevity, I would reveal all of that. And indeed, just before I went in for the procedure, I put out a statement saying, 'Look, I'm having a procedure. I'm going to be out for a week,' because that was the recommendation of the doctor. And I'm back at work.
Okay. But I know that there was something in the middle. Is that...
Yeah, it was. Sure. I mean, first of all, I was in Springfield. I started to feel something that I thought might be related to the procedure, or that, you know, might be, I don't know, a complication. And so it was 10 or 11:00 at night. And when you're in Springfield at 10 or 11:00 at night on a Wednesday, and my doctor is in Chicago, I don't have a lot of choices about where I'm going to go to have that checked out, but I thought it was important to do it right then. And so I went to the emergency room at Memorial. They were terrific. I talked to a couple of doctors who came in to see me, a nurse or two, and they, you know, kind of patched me up and sent me home and said this is not serious.
Okay. And how are the negotiations for the bill plan going? What are you going to do next week to make that happen?
Well, the bills, as you know, are, I think they're separated into six bills in the Senate. And so those are under consideration by the Senate. There is, I think, a pretty good prospect of many of them, maybe most of them, passing. And I would say that the counterproposal or whatever it was by the IML really is just all about the state spending a whole big bunch of money and not doing what we really need to do, which is we need to make it easier for people, and I'm talking about local folks who own a piece of property, to build another cottage or whatever, or renovate a garage so that someone could live there. It's a very light change. I know that there are Republican, mostly mayors who have stood up and opposed this thing. A few Democrats, I think, worried that we're taking local control away. The reality is that there is still all of the local control about the height restrictions, about how close the setback could be to the street, all of those other things. The decisions about that get made by local plan commissions and local city councils. Still, we're just trying to make it a little bit easier for a homeowner, for example, to create a duplex and maybe bring in their own grandparents or parents to live next door to them with their own door lock and key and a wall between them so that they can take care of their parents, but the parents can also have their own independence.
I can't let Rose have all the fun asking about the Bears. I'd like to get a little more information about the mayor of Chicago. He has said repeatedly he has the only fleshed-out plan. He's also floated this idea now to have the city take over the ISFA. Have you seen that? Have you said anything about it?
