Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday she’s determined to devise a long-term fix to keep Chicago taxpayers off the hook for payments on Soldier Field renovation bonds whenever hotel tax revenues fall short of the rosy growth rate built into the 2001 financing plan.
For the second straight year, the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority doesn’t have enough money to repay $415 million in outstanding debt, most of it tied to the Soldier Field renovation completed long before the Bears agreed to purchase the shuttered site of Arlington International Racecourse for construction of a new stadium.
The reason for the $29 million shortfall is simple.