Progress Illinois

It appears that taking in music at three of Chicago's main downtown festivals is about to get a lot more expensive.

Concerts headlined by big-name acts at the Taste of Chicago may start costing $20 to $65 while patrons would be charged $10 to attend a show at both the Chicago Blues Festival and the city's Jazz Fest should the city accept the sole bid it received to outsource management of these three events, the Sun-Times reports today. Music at all three events has previously been free. People attending the Taste only for its culinary options would pay $20 to get in, meanwhile, with half of that amount rebated as food and drink tickets.

The idea behind the fees is that new revenue will improve the musical offerings at the festivals. That may be a worthy goal, but it's also true the new charges will exclude people on tight budgets who previously could count on listening to the music at these events for a mere $4.50 -- the cost of a round-trip ride on CTA between Grant Park, where all of these shows take place, and their homes. Four festivals showcasing Latin, Celtic, gospel, and country music are to remain free. In all, the city has lost around $7 million over the past three years managing these seven events. For more on the lakefront fest outsourcing saga, check out WBEZ's Jim DeRogatis' comprehensive coverage here. We've got a call in with the city's Department of Procurement Services for additional details about this privatization bid, and will update this quick hit when we hear more.

If Chicago's next mayor wants to sell off any additional city assets or services, he or she is going to face scrutiny from aldermen in the City Council. Outside of the council chambers this morning, Illinois PIRG held a press conference to thank the 19 lawmakers who have signed on to the group's privatization transparency pledge (PDF), which asks that members "not vote for any future ordinances that lease public assets or services unless at a minimum there is proper public discourse and protections to ensure taxpayers receive fair value." "Before I endorse any candidate for mayor," said Ald. Joe Moore (49th Ward), one of the signers, "they're going to have to sign on to these principles." Watch:

The group is also calling on aldermen to revive the "Taxpayer Protection Ordinance" (PDF), which was introduced in 2009 and gained 13 co-sponsors but is now stuck in the Finance Committee. That bill would have been useful when the Daley administration rushed through its parking meter lease two years ago. To plug the city's 2011 deficit, aldermen are expected today to approve the mayor's plan to drain the meter reserve fund.

UPDATE (12:47 p.m): Right on cue, mayoral contender Rahm Emanuel has confirmed that he would oppose the sale of Midway Airport, which the Daley administration has been working to swing for a while.

As expected, Intralot USA -- one of the private companies whose bid to operate Illinois' lottery system was rejected by the state -- has alerted the Department of Revenue that they are protesting the Quinn administration's selection process, which was finalized last week. In a letter, the company argues that the scoring system used to rate the competing proposals was "arbitrary" and that inadequate training of bid evaluators could be one cause of the discrepancies. State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) even wants Attorney General Lisa Madigan to investigate.

Everyone might have a better sense of why the state choose the politically-connected Northstar Lottery Group to run its important gaming program if the company hadn't asked state officials to redact several pages of its application. (The files can be downloaded here.) Those officials who conducted the evaluation had already been challenged about the validity of their process, which good government groups thought was rushed and lacked transparency. Jeffrey Cramer, a former U.S. Attorney and current director of Kroll Managing, was hired to conduct an internal audit of the proceedings. Last week, he defended the Department of Revenue. Listen:

Cramer's word should not be dismissed. Considering the winning bidder did not stress the importance of reducing the lotto's reliance on low-income players, though, this latest news doesn't inspire much confidence.