"That's clearly something they should have done," said Nadav Soked, a Northwestern University Law School professor who specializes in local government, land use planning and property law. When the Tribune requested audits through a Freedom of Information Act request, village staff said no such documents exist. The lease agreement copy provided to the Tribune stipulates Bolingbrook can audit Rocket Ice's books to ensure the town is getting its fair cut. The village's 911 call service was outsourced recently to save money. And last year the village consolidated its six departments to help tighten its financial belt. Claar repeatedly bemoans the skyrocketing cost of police and fire pensions. The vote to keep Schroeder's payments at 1 percent comes at a time when the village faces financial challenges. The May vote means Schroeder won't have to pay that 3 percent slice to Bolingbrook until 2024.īased on revenue staying the same, that means that at least $350,000 that would have gone into village coffers between now and 2024 will stay with the business.
Payment records though indicate Schroeder continued to pay 1 percent. It's not clear in the documents furnished by the village why that did not happen.
Village records provided to the Tribune suggest that a lease fee of 3 percent of gross revenue was to have kicked in in 2009 under terms of the original agreement. He reported roughly $1.75 million in revenue from July 2013 to April, according to village documents, and passed about $17,500 of that on to village coffers. Records show Schroeder paying Bolingbrook its 1 percent cut of the ice arena's annual revenue even as he reported in summaries to the village that his revenue continues to climb steadily. Retail revenue estimates provided by Bolingbrook and compiled by Rocket Ice Arena claim hockey tournaments and other activities bring nearly $4 million into the town every year, a contention that Roger Noll, a Stanford University professor who specializes in sports economics, dismissed as "pretty hilarious reading."Ĭlaar waxed nostalgic in May about the history of the Rocket Ice Arena property, a former indoor wave pool. "Pay to play" has been a long-practiced style of Illinois politics in which businesses make large campaign donations with the understanding they'll be "repaid" with lucrative contracts.īolingbrook's lease fee and amusement tax revenue from the ice arena - benefits cited as the financial rationale for the town to sign the lease agreement - add up to about $193,000 since it opened in 1999, according to village records.Ĭlaar has touted the ancillary benefits of the ice arena, which sits just around the corner from Village Hall, including increased visitors to the southwest suburb.
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