from the Chicago Sun Times:
August 26, 2010
By FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Not even Taste of Chicago, the city’s premier lakefront festival, is immune from the worst budget crisis in modern history.
Mayor Daley said Thursday he would seek to privatize the Taste, other lakefront festivals and an array of government staples — from animal care to fleet management and curbside recycling — to help erase a record $654.7 million shortfall.
Under heavy pressure from aldermen, the mayor also opened the door to a possibility he had previously foreclosed — declaring a surplus in tax-increment-financing districts and distributing “a portion” of that unallocated revenue to the city and other local government agencies.
That would have the added advantage of easing the budget crisis at the Chicago Public Schools, since schools get 53.5 percent of that money. The city gets slightly more than 20 percent.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported in June that Daley was considering privatizing curbside recycling to shave up to $40 million off the $60 million annual cost and use the savings to expand the program to the two-thirds of the city without it.
The newspaper also reported that the mayor was under pressure to privatize Animal Care and Control after several dogs were mistakenly euthanized. ............(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/2641490,daley-privatize-taste-chicago-082610.article 
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