Sears deal getting split?

SPRINGFIELD — The big tax-breaks plan that includes an effort to keep Sears Holdings Corp. in Hoffman Estates might be split up in an effort to make it more politically palatable for lawmakers.

Lawmakers are discussing whether to return to Springfield next week to take up the proposals. Officials at both Sears and CME Group in Chicago, which also wants tax incentives, have said they will decide by the end of this year whether to move out of Illinois.

House Republican Leader Tom Cross is negotiating a revised plan with top House Democrats. Cross' spokeswoman Monday declined to comment on specifics.

“Discussions are ongoing,” spokeswoman Sara Wojcicki Jimenez said.

The proposal could change significantly before lawmakers vote on it, but the new proposal splits off the business tax breaks, including help for Sears and CME Group, into one piece of legislation. Tax credits for the working poor would make up another piece of legislation. Yet another would include an increase in the standard income tax exemption for individual taxpayers.

A massive umbrella bill encompassing all of those elements was approved by the Illinois Senate last week, but failed in the House, at least in part because Republicans protested the cost of the tax breaks.

Splitting the business provisions off from the credits for individuals could draw more Republican support.

“They should be more open to the package,” state Rep. Fred Crespo, a Hoffman Estates Democrat, said.

And Democrats who protested many of the business breaks might be more open to approving the tax relief for individuals.

Brooke Anderson, a spokesman for Gov. Pat Quinn, said Monday the governor's position continues to be that any deal must “help working families.”