>> The budget and the Bears were the talk of Springfield over the weekend this year, spring legislative session, which ended early this morning may be remembered for the bills that did not pass just as much as what did while lawmakers approved a 56 billion dollar budget.

The House and Senate could not agree on a bill that would pave the way for the Bears to build a new stadium in Illinois.

Joining us over zoom to recap the weekend in Springfield is been Zelensky statehouse reporter at Capitol News, Illinois.

Been welcome back.

So as we said, the General Assembly, of course, passing a budget last night.

How does the spending defer this year compared to last year's?

>> Not much, actually, by the time this current fiscal year is over the amount that the state is planning to spend in fiscal year.

2027 beginning on July.

1st, it's actually going to be pretty much the same amount that the state is going to spend this year.

So, you know, really just goes to highlight, I think how tight that budget was theirs.

Hardly really any new programs.

there's no, you know, additional spending on major policies that were already in the budget very, very, very tight budget year.

Basically a baseline budget coming year.

>> What new revenue sources are included in this budget.

>> Yeah, the main ones changes to operating loss deductions for businesses, but also the social usage tax that the city of Chicago has also put in place.

This would require the largest social media companies to pay a fee for each user that lives in the state of Illinois.

Then there's other things such as new licensing requirements and fees for fantasy sports operators basically tax seen prediction market sports.

But that's the same way that sports bets are currently tax.

Now, tires is another one additional advertising tax was also created.

But lawmakers are not going to collect money from it this year because they expect that's probably going to be tied up in court for quite a while.

>> What was the status, OK?

Because we've got to talk about the bare and groom, right?

What was the status of the Bear Stadium talks going into the weekend?

>> Yeah.

Going into the weekend it was still silence.

Essentially.

We have no idea what was actually going to happen.

There is no indication one way or another that bill was going to be filed.

It really was starting to get the impression.

I think that, you know, this was a having serious trouble getting support in the Senate.

So, you know, going into the weekend, I think we were, you know, that expecting maybe a last minute deal would come But, you know, I think chances that of that actually passing through both chambers of the General Assembly were pretty slim, you know, several days ago.

And certainly we saw the end result was that could get through one place.

But it was just too late.

there is no time in the House for it.

>> So walk us through I guess sort of like the back and forth over the weekend over this because thought there was a bill and that Bill was and now is new Bell.

What happed?

>> Yeah.

So we talked to Senator Cunningham, the Senate sponsor from the southwest side Chicago about this on Saturday night and he came out of a caucus meeting and told a group of reporters that the original pilot legislation, the mega project bill that Governor Pritzker had pushed for that the House and past that had no support in the Democratic caucus.

So they had to change gears.

They have to come up with something else and he said they were going to file a plan that would basically allow the city of Chicago to actually be able compete with Arlington Heights to attract the Bears and build a stadium and, you know, after that, it was kind of silent for most of the day on Sunday and then late Sunday night, Senator Cunningham told reporters that the he was going to file a bill and ultimately around 10:00PM.

He did file that Bill and it was very generous incentive package.

But it was just it was too late for the House to take it up.

Think didn't have time to review it after it passed the Senate at 03:30AM, in the morning today.

And, you I guess that's kind of where we're at right now.

You know, the Bears are in limbo.

>> Right.

So today, Mayor Brandon Johnson in Chicago, he did react to this continuing his push to keep the Bears in Chicago.

Here he is.

>> There is no play for all.

In tonight's, there is no clear indication of how what has been proposed.

That would did not pass.

How revenue would actually be generated.

What we have said from the very beginning, only viable plan for the Bears was proposed by my administration, along with the Bears 2 years ago.

>> Ben, what was it?

Was the mayor effective in peeling away support for Chicago?

We're from Chicago lawmakers for that original mega projects Bill.

>> It seemed like he was convincing.

There was a lot of Senate Democrats who won in Chicago to be able to have the opportunity to do something with Soldier Field, something with another site to house and incentives structured there, too, potentially keep the Bears in Chicago like the mayor has said, it turns out what we actually learn from Senator Cunningham is the Bears in the city of Chicago have actually been talking a lot more than we had thought they were.

So that seemed to be playing into the minds of a lot of Chicago law makers that they're actually was still a chance that the Bears can stay in Chicago.

But obviously this remains kind of a bit of a confusing situation because even this morning the Bears, but they are only choosing between Arlington Heights and Hammond, but it certainly have an effect.

I think the mayor's message that Chicago could still be in the running.

>> What else did the Bears say about these late developments?

>> Yeah, they didn't have much to say really at all.

They didn't take a position on the bill that was passed in the Senate this morning.

They didn't actually see that bill until the rest of us all the belts.

I think, you know, they didn't have time to evaluate it either.

But without action here in Springfield, they said that at this point they're going to move forward on the same timeline that Kevin Warren said a few months ago, which is that they're going to make a decision within the next late spring early summer, which is right where we're at and that decision is going to come down the Arlington Heights and Hammond based on the current information they have right now, which is Illinois does not have an incentive package, but Indiana does.

>> Is their chance than the Legislature could meet again to possibly push a stadium bill forward.

>> Yeah, it's a good question.

You know, House Speaker Emanuel, Chris Welch said this is going to be worked on during the summer.

We know this is a priority for a lot of lawmakers, but I asked earlier this morning.

You know, what is the chances of a special session?

Are you actually considering doing that?

The summer?

And he said no.

So it seems to me that this issue should least as far as the legislature goes is kind of it is off the table for right now.

It's lawmakers won't be back until November after the election.

That's probably too long for the Bears.

So I think a lot of folks just waiting to see what the bears do unless some something crazy changes in