New City Budget Pulling $370M From Parking Meter Deal To Help Plug $550M Hole

CBS 2:

You won't be paying any new taxes, but you also won't get to enjoy Venetian night and other long-running city events anymore either, as Mayor Richard M. Daley closes a $550 million budget gap.

Read the whole story: CBS 2

Comments

[Cogs]

So much for the rainy day fund. We can be sure to read about sweetheart deals involving a Daley family member or crony once this fiscal crisis fades from the news.

[BVictor1]

They're using $330 million out of a deal that was over $1 billion. So what's your problem. If you haven't noticed, things are crappy economically. Would you rather pay $1 more at the meter or have some other fee rise exponentially?

[CommunistUtopia]

Be confident of this, Daley will blow all the money from the parking revenue. What will he sell off next? After all the fiscal mismanagement and the embarrassing failure that was the Olympic bid, he should resign or retire and not seek reelection.

[BVictor1]

Well, all the money from the skyway deal hasn't been used yet.

What will he sell off next, probably Midway, which was to be privatized but the deal fell through and the city ended up with about $100 million,

The Olympic bid wasn't a failure in total. Certainally a disappointment, but even though we lost it, it was the biggest amount the city has received on a worldwide stage in years., and in some ways, will pay off.

[47th]

Nothing disappointing about Daley's Olympic beatdown! A lot of people were thrilled!

[KDog76A]

I find it hard to believe that cancelling an event like Venetian night that brought half a million people downtown is a losing proposition for the city. Its like saying a half a million people came downtown and did not spend any money. If people spent an average of $20 in the city on that night, that would be $10 million of taxable funds. At that rate, the city would pull in $1.1 million.

[Joe001]

I've attended several Venetian Nights and there's no way people spent an average of $20 while downtown; it's not that kind of event. Most people's spending is only for public transportation to get there, which produces no tax revenue.

[ekoorb]

So we're blowing a discounted 100 year revenue stream in order to subsidize things like the traffic ladies downtown? Putting cr@zy expenditures in our faces every day only serves to deter genuine progressive politics. BTW the property tax bills about to be mailed will be demanding more money; residents will be paying more taxes!