As a lifelong Bears fan who wants the team to stay in Illinois, I refused to vote for any bill that gave special tax breaks to a billionaire franchise while everyday Illinois taxpayers are drowning in the second highest property taxes in America. I made that promise months ago, and I kept it.

The failure of the Democrats’ Bears stadium schemes is a rare victory for the hardworking people of this state. But we cannot let this moment pass without exposing exactly how far the out-of-touch Democrats and their failing leader, Gov. JB Pritzker, were willing to go to screw over Illinois taxpayers.

Let’s be blunt about what these two rotten proposals would have done to you and your family.

The House “Mega-Project” scam

House Democrats wanted to freeze property taxes for massive developments like the Bears’ proposed billion-dollar stadium and entertainment district. In plain English, no matter how much the property value skyrocketed after they built a shiny new dome, the Bears would keep paying taxes based on the old, low-value, pre-development value of the former Arlington racetrack land.

According to analyses, this deal would have frozen the Bears’ property taxes at around $4 million a year, no matter how much the new stadium and development were worth.

That means taxpayers would lose $39 million every single year in revenue. That adds up to more than $1.5 billion over 40 years. Local schools, roads, and services still need funding. So, who pays? You do. Not the Bears. Homeowners, young families, seniors and small business owners in Arlington Heights and surrounding communities already crushed by Illinois’ sky-high property taxes would get stuck with this abysmal bill. The cost to the Bears for this scheme? Payments referred to as a PILOT agreement, which would have sent money to local governments at a rate far below what their property taxes should have been.

Think about the sheer arrogance here. Democrats spent months in backrooms trying to figure out how to give massive property tax relief to billionaires, while seniors on fixed incomes are losing their homes and families continue fleeing the state. It turns out property tax relief actually is a possibility in Illinois. But only if you own an NFL team.

The Senate “Stadium Authority” fiveaway

If the House plan seemed like a sweetheart deal, the Senate version was outright theft from taxpayers. This scheme would have let Arlington Heights or Chicago create special stadium authorities. The Bears would gift the stadium to the government entity, then lease it back. The result? The Bears could dodge property taxes entirely.

Homeowners pay. Small businesses pay. But a billionaire NFL franchise operating in a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility would get a free pass.

Supporters of the bill called it “tax certainty” for the Bears. Illinois taxpayers want certainty, too. Certainty that politicians won’t raise their taxes again. Certainty they won’t lose their home to another assessment spike. And certainty that politicians will finally put working families first instead of connected cronies.

The most embarrassing part of this whole process was that the Democrat supermajority couldn’t even agree on which way to fleece taxpayers. It’s literally their specialty. One plan froze the Bears’ taxes. The other eliminated them. After months of late-night deals and insider negotiations, they still fumbled their own legislation.

And it gets worse. While Senate Democrats were trying to put together a bill that would allow either Chicago or Arlington Heights to land the Bears, it was drafted so hastily that they filed a version that would have actually excluded both of those cities. After months of negotiations and backroom deals, Democrats still managed to write a bill that would not have worked for the very places they were trying to help. They eventually filed an amendment to “fix” their broken scheme, but the bill was never called for a vote in the House.

That is what happens when you rush through special-interest handouts behind closed doors. You end up with sloppy, incompetent governance that leaves taxpayers holding the bag.

This entire fiasco reveals the rotten priorities of Illinois Democrats. They will move heaven and earth to cut taxes for billionaires, but they never raise a finger for the families and seniors getting destroyed by the second highest property taxes in the nation.

While they obsessed over protecting the Bears’ bottom line, Illinois families continue struggling under crushing costs, businesses fight to survive, and young people leave the state in droves. The Bears bill failed this time, but the big-government, pro-crony mindset in Springfield remains alive and dangerous.

I stood firm: no special tax treatment for billionaires until everyday taxpayers get real, meaningful property tax relief first. As long as I serve you in the Illinois Senate, I will keep fighting for the people who built this state, not the special interests and Democrat insiders who’ve spent decades bleeding it dry.

• Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport, is the Illinois state senator for the 45th District.