Chicago's Parking Meter Deal a Prescription For Trouble

Caution: Inspector General David Hoffman's report on Chicago's parking meter sales debacle may be hazardous to your health.

Taxpayers who already suffer from high blood pressure shouldn't read his findings. They show that the 'dubious financial deal'--a 75-year lease to a private firm--was struck for at least $1 billion less than it was worth. According to Hoffman, that's how much more the city itself could have collected from meters without leasing them out.

If that's not enough to give you angina, Hoffman says the city's choice to railroad the parking deal through City Council with only two day's notice contravenes every recommendation on adopting public-private partnerships (PPP's) from Texas to Australia. Even worse, the federal Government Accounting Office has already taken Chicago to task for sloppy public-private lease deals, citing the city's failure to consider potential toll revenues in Mayor Daley's 2006 Skyway Lease deal.

Hoffman minces no words: there were other ways to fill the city's budget hole and all the savvy citizen has to do is follow news stories to believe him. One article examines how aldermen threatened with police layoffs were convinced to plug a $50 million dollar budget hole by leasing out parking meters. The next story counts up over a billion dollars in the city's bloated TIF slush fund. Who is in charge here? It makes your blood pressure spike.

It's not just the lease giveaway. It's the parking inequities. In April, I wrote President Stroger and Mayor Daley because of the tragic effect new meter rates have on poor hospital patients, who were caught short of quarters when parking rates jumped. Nobody tracks how many patients leave the ER with a little orange paper souvenir, but judging from the windshields, it's too many.

And believe me, the solution is not installing credit card meters. Asking credit-poor patients to use their credit cards is akin to saying, of the starving, "let them eat cake."

All around, the parking mess is a lesson in how much we don't know. We didn't know how many billions we gave away to Morgan Stanley by leasing out meters. And we don't really know who foots the bill for parking fees. In low-income, high-density neighborhoods, where curbs spots are scarce, parking tickets are a regressive tax. They cost people who can least afford tickets, the most money. And when they are booted and lose their cars and jobs, it's not just cash; it's heartache.

As taxpayers, it's high time we knew more: how many tickets are issued by ward, by neighborhood, by street. We should know why they are issued and who foots the bill, and, maybe, why a city with a billion dollar TIF surplus couldn't even balance its budget.

Comments

[Roelof]

Don't forget to add up how much money is being lost by businesses without parking. I don't even think about going to a movie at the Music Box, any restaurant without its own parking lot or any store that doesn't have a lot. This has to be killing stores along streets like Clark, Halsted and Southport.

[shocktreatment]

I am just imagining olympic tourists, after the CTA breaks their hearts, flocking to the car rental agencies, only to discover that parking in this town costs more than dinner, if they manage to pay correctly. More than a day at the hotel, if not.
Daley's $billion in TIF won't make a down payment on the cruel shuck of hosting an Olympics here, as if he would ever part with even a sliver of it for his latest scam.

[ChiGuy]

Mr. Orr,

As someone who once had you as his alderman here in the 49th Ward, I can tell you that there are many among we Rogers Park residents who wish you would challenge for the position of Mayor of our great city again, as you did some years ago.
(We wouldn't come even remotely close to suggesting that our current alderman, Joe "The Developers Best Friend", "Fois Gras" Moore do so.)

The climate is different today. Finally, many rarely involved in local politics are seeing Richie Daley for the sleazy politician that he is. For years, his people have been adept at keeping the stain of his organization's corruption from touching him. But things have changed and he doesn't have the luster he once did for those who only had a casual acquaintance with local affairs.

I urge you , I BEG you, please run for Mayor of this city again. Your support will be doubled, at least. And perhaps we can topple Da Mare's Little Prince once and for all.

[47th]

Good post! I think Orr could make a formidable candidate.

[ejhickey]

I wonder what public assets will next be sold to private company , The Water Department? The CTA? The Side Walks ? The public beaches?

The odd thisng about the parking meter deal was that it was done by Daley who was a big Obama supporter. This sounds like deal Bush would do. is Daley really a closet Republican?

[47th]

I think Daley supported Obama because it was politically better for Daley to have Obama as a U.S. Senator in D.C. than a possible mayoral candidate in Chicago. Now the question is why President Obama enthusiastically supports a creep like Daley?

[LeftRight]

I'm still trying to figure it all out.... At the prior rate the city STILL would have gotten more money from the meters than they did from this deal..... With the prices raised anywhere from 4 to 8 times the previous rate, the city is losing some SERIOUS cash!!

Does Daley REALLY think that the Olympics in Chicago is THAT good of an idea????? Remind me to be on vacation that year!!

[garcho]

"As taxpayers, it's high time we knew more: how many tickets are issued by ward, by neighborhood, by street. We should know why they are issued and who foots the bill, and, maybe, why a city with a billion dollar TIF surplus couldn't even balance its budget."

bravo!

As a citizen of Chicago, I can say that I'd rather give the mob a predictable cash sum every week then pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to the city in random fines every year. Can't they just send a monthy ticket in the mail or something?

[47th]

Sounds like Orr might be thinking of running for mayor. Sounds good to me.