The Real Chicago Way: A Privatization Scheme That's A Loser For Taxpayers

[Hannah Bell]

By Thomas Frank
Wall Street Journal
December 8, 2009

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703558004574584232074750544.html



When the entertainers of the right aren't declaring
their disgust with President Obama for groveling before
foreign potentates, they're pretending to fear him as a
left-wing thug, an exemplar of what they call "the
Chicago way..."

Consider one of the actual news stories to emerge from
Chicago of late: The city's decision to privatize its
parking meters. Thanks to a deal finalized in 2008,
Chicago's parking meters will be operated for the next
75 years by a group of investors put together by Morgan
Stanley, including the sovereign wealth fund of Abu
Dhabi...Selling public property is the true Chicago way...

It was not until months later that Chicagoans
discovered what a lousy deal it was. The inspector
general's report estimates that the private investors
paid a little more than half the amount that the system
would have generated had the city held onto the meters
itself...but for the next 75 years all of it will be done to
ensure that citizens render proper tribute to Wall Street.

And now comes the inevitable denouement. Last week, the
Chicago City Council voted to plug a hole in its 2010
budget using funds remaining from the billion-dollar
parking-meter haul, despite earlier plans to invest the
money for the long term. Almost all of it will be gone
by the end of next year...

http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/2009/12/real-chicago-way-privatization-scheme.html

[Hannah Bell]

1. kik

[KharmaTrain]

2. There Are Several "Chicago Ways"

Chicago is facing the same mess almost every state, city and county is...the byproduct of the booooosh fleecing of the treasury. With it's tax breaks to the rich, state and local governments lost out on billions of dollars as not only were their federal taxes reduced but the lower "bottom line number" led to less revenues for those entities. Add to that the big dip in real estate and retail taxes and from California to Massetchussets states are suffocating from huge defecits at a time when their services are needed the most.

Chicago is not some insular autocracy, but is one party heading in several directions. While Daley attempts to privitize as a way to raise revenues, there's the Cook County board that has risen taxes to some of the highest in the country and then there's the state government still reeling from all the corruption of Blagoyevich. Thus everywhere on looks the cubboard is bare and the schemes to make up the shortfall has gone to bust as well.

The right wing loves to portray this President as a "Chicago politician"...which he never was. Truth is for whatever warts this city has, Chicago is still a world class city that reflects a wide cross section of groups that look more like "America" than almost any other city. The GOOP hates it cause they haven't won a major city office since the days of Big Bill Thompson and Al Capone.