New schemes hold the public hostage to private finance.
When Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced a
“new and innovative” financing tool last month to help Chicago renovate
failing infrastructure without precipitating another budget crisis,
many in the city were understandably critical.
Chicagoans
have already endured the notorious 75-year lease of their parking
meters to a consortium headed by Morgan Stanley. That sale promulgated a
system wherein the public is held hostage by private finance, due
largely to the inclusion of arcane legal stipulations like “non-compete
clauses” and “compensation events” in the language of the contract.
Ellen Danin, writing in the Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy
relates that: “Chicagoans learned about compensation events when CBS
reported that the city’s parking meter contract required reimbursement
for events like repairing streets. Public records showed that in the
first quarter of 2009, the city was liable to the parking meter
contractor for more than $106,000 in lost income during the slow months
for street repair and street closings for festivals, parades, and
holidays, as well as repairs and maintenance. At that rate, it is not
unreasonable to predict that Chicago will owe roughly $500,000 a year to
the private contractor.”
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