Chicago Bears President/CEO Kevin Warren got significant attention Friday for his remarks at a news conference, saying the Lake Forest football team is “still extremely focused on Arlington Heights, on building our stadium there.”

This is no surprise, given he’d told the Chicago Tribune basically the same thing exactly 12 weeks earlier, announcing “significant progress with the leaders in Arlington Heights.”

The difference is that in mid-May, there was still a slight potential for the General Assembly to take steps in its spring session to offer the team some sort of financial help to abandon the lakefront home that taxpayers renovated at the turn of the century. Now there is much less on lawmakers’ plates leading into the fall veto session – which is a good thing if you don’t mind the heightened scrutiny – and passing anything at this point requires a 60% supermajority.

The particular wrinkle for the Bears here is that the only potentially politically plausible avenue to get state support has always been to focus on infrastructure. Even if the franchise, recently valued at nearly $9 billion, pays for every inch of the stadium complex itself, there’s no way to ignore how football games, concerts and other major events would wreak havoc on the current highway and public transit network.

But the real reason we even need a veto session this fall is that lawmakers adjourned earlier this year without making long-term plans to bolster the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace Suburban Bus, facing a combined $770 million shortfall, though leaders have laid out plans for spending $1.5 billion to “fix” the problems a $4.17 billion annual operating budget hasn’t addressed.

In short, despite the 78-40 Democratic control in the House and 40-19 Senate edge, it’s difficult to envision a scenario where the Bears cut in front of the Regional Transit Authority to access the same money pool. That’s true aside from other current and potential funding priorities.

Politicians might want to make it as simple as not finding enough Chicago Democrats to vote in favor of anything, letting the team vacate Soldier Field. While that’s a significant consideration, few things in Springfield are so elemental. Certainly so regarding stadium funding, as there are many, many examples of privately held franchises leveraging public money to increase the value of their personal properties, and no valid economic studies showing such deals are beneficial to taxpayers.

The team keeps asking because there’s a chance lawmakers will craft something they can vote for without fear of electoral consequences. The only opposition requires voters to consistently (and loudly) resist any such overtures, making the team’s wishes politically toxic.

No one has shown how spending money on this venture improves Illinois. Voters must demand that proof.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.