Daily Herald opinion: Building a partnership: For Illinois, accentuating the positive with the Bears means showing some urgency

Exactly what Bears CEO Kevin Warren meant when he said last week that “what we have to do is continually just stay positive” isn’t inherently clear. Not all the players in the ongoing franchise stadium drama, with the possible exception of the Bears, can expect an outcome they will consider positive. But to the extent that the comment applies to the state of Illinois generally and the suburbs specifically, there obviously remains room for hope, if not optimism, that a deal can still be produced to move the team to Arlington Heights.

The outcome rests on two factors evident in Warren’s comments during a program Thursday at the Gorton Center in Lake Forest. Both of them fall largely under the control of the state legislature.

The most immediate and practical consideration is finding some sweet spot between the Senate and the House versions of a Bears enticement bill. In April, the House approved a plan that had been endorsed by the Bears that would have enabled them to negotiate their property tax liability with affected parties. But the Senate balked at that idea as too unappealing to Chicago lawmakers and, in the waning hours of the legislative session, approved their own bill that would bring the possibility of a city development back into the picture with a taxpayer-owned stadium and lease arrangement.

Lawmakers are said to be working on some sort of merger of the two plans, and one can only imagine what they may come up with before the November veto session and hope that it has merit in satisfying the interests of both taxpayers and the Bears.

The other consideration is even more potentially elusive. It follows from another Warren statement in Lake Forest.

“You have to have a really good partner,” he said, “because regardless of where you build, there are always going to be complications. Things happen.”

On that score, Illinois lawmakers have not proved particularly reliable so far. Not that they haven't expressed plenty of affection for the Bears and of hope that some taxpayer-friendly strategy can be found to give the NFL franchise the property-tax predictability it covets. But they certainly haven’t demonstrated any urgency in that direction.

Now, they find themselves in a position not only of having to produce in three months a nuanced funding plan they couldn’t create in more than three years of talk and strategizing, but also of proving that they'll be a responsible partner when “things happen.”

Their primary competition in Indiana, remember, took less than three weeks to develop a plan and get it signed by the governor.

Finding a statutory sweet spot doesn't mean Illinois lawmakers must willing to cave to whatever surprises the Bears encounter in the development process. They certainly must not be. But they have to show they're willing to work with a sense of urgency to get solutions.

So far, that prospect weighs far in Indiana's favor. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, House and Senate leaders and lawmakers in the trenches are going to have to demonstrate some serious resilience to make up the difference if there is any real hope for a positive outcome for Illinois to the stadium story.