State lawmakers are a few yards closer to reaching a deal on the megaprojects bill that could help keep the Chicago Bears in Illinois.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — State lawmakers are a few yards closer to reaching a deal on the megaprojects bill that could help keep the Chicago Bears in Illinois.

Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago) told reporters in Springfield Tuesday that he is optimistic that at least 60 members of the Democratic caucus will support his plan.

The payment instead of taxes, or PILOT, proposal could allow companies working on megaprojects to have their property taxes frozen for up to 40 years and negotiate an annual smaller payment based on a weighted vote of local taxing bodies.

Buckner said the state could potentially use half of that revenue for property tax rebates to help families.

"This would require a portion of that special payment to go to folks in the immediate area," Buckner said. "The remaining portion of that would go toward the statewide property tax relief fund that we stood up maybe five or six years ago, but we haven't funded it up to this point."

House Democrats stressed they want data centers excluded from the massive economic development plan. Some caucus members also asked Buckner to include a five-year sunset of the legislation, so lawmakers could analyze how effective the PILOT program is.

Buckner said he hopes to present the amended language of the PILOT bill to a House committee on Wednesday. 

The Chicago Bears want to see the plan passed out of the Illinois House by the end of this week.

"I got some marching orders from my caucus to put together an amendment that looked more like what was important to us," Buckner said. "I've been in lockstep with both Deputy Governor Andy Manar and with Sen. Bill Cunningham on this. So, obviously, they have not had a chance to caucus on this yet. They will when they get back, but I think our job right now is to try to move this forward and if there are more conversations that need to be had, of course, we'll have those." 

State representatives are scheduled to be in session through Thursday, while state senators will return to the Capitol Tuesday. 

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