Progress Illinois

After his administration received unprecedented criticism for leasing off Chicago's parking meter system, one might think Mayor Daley would cool it on the privatization schemes.  Instead, he appears to be looking for more public assets to sell off to the highest bidder. The Tribune reported yesterday that the same type of consultants who cooked up the parking meter deal (and profited off it) are now "tempting him" with "a menu of options."  "It whets your appetite," Daley told the paper's editorial board, "the things they see that we don't see." He went on say, "Nothing is off the table ... Everything is always on the table."

So there it is. Daley and consultants re already working the numbers behind closed doors. The scenario sounds reminiscent of the 75-year parking meter lease project that was rammed through the City Council in just two days, costing taxpayers upwards of $1 billion in potential revenue losses.

Today, the Sun-Times Fran Spielman ticks through the possibilities, concluding that there are five "viable" options: Midway Airport, O'Hare Airport, trash collection, the water system, and the sewage system.  The mayor has already attempted (unsuccessfully) to unload Midway. O'Hare is bogged down under loads of debt.  Meanwhile, the City Council has already put the kibosh on the trash proposal.  So it would seem that the water and sewer systems would be the most likely targets.

As Newstips' Curtis Black reported earlier this week, there's already evidence that both ideas are being actively explored by City Hall.  On Wednesday, he Tribune asked the mayor if he'd put the city's water up for lease. Daley's response? He declined to answer "because it would stir up too much controversy."

"Taxpayers have a reason to be concerned," the Illinois Public Interest Research Group's (PIRG) Brian Imus tells us. "The type of backroom policymaking that led to the parking meter privatization debacle is the same type of governing that is responsible for the budget mess we face today."

If Daley is indeed eying water privatization, let's hope the City Council passes Ald. Scott Waguespack's (32nd Ward) Asset Lease Taxpayer Protection Ordinance before he gets much further. After all, Waguespack's measure would open up the privatization negotiations to independent review.

As the Trib sees it, the mayor "in denial" if he thinks more privatization is the key to putting the city on sound financial footing:

The unloading of assets -- this jettisoning of their ability to produce future revenues -- becomes self-defeating when the revenues are used for routine operations. As Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, asked Wednesday, "If the parking meter money is depleted within five years, then what happens for the next 70 years of that contract?"

Here's what happens: Chicago won't have the meter revenue and won't have the meters. Same as the Skyway. How will your household fare if your long-range financial plan is a garage sale that never ends?

In agrarian societies, this short-sighted strategy is known as "eating your seed corn." After which, you starve.

Be sure to read Black's entire water privatization article here.