Chicago Leads the Way on Government...

[5stringJeff]

Privatization.

No, really.


Chicago Leads the Way on Local Government Privatization
Daley initiatives generating billions of dollars to boost the city's fiscal health
By Leonard C. Gilroy, AICP

As the economy has deteriorated in recent months, so too have the fiscal conditions in local government. Last Friday, the mayors of three big cities—Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Phoenix—sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson asking the feds to use a portion of the $700 billion bailout to assist local governments struggling with growing budget shortfalls. Fairfax County's current half-billion dollar shortfall may be a warning sign that many cities and counties in the Commonwealth too are in dire fiscal straits.

Rather than ask federal taxpayers to bail them out, cities and counties should embrace a variety of privatization strategies to help them do more with less. As one key example, in the business world financially-stressed firms often find it good practice to divest assets. Divisions or subsidiaries that are poorly run by a large conglomerate often receive a new lease on life under new, leaner management. The one-time windfall from the sale permits the seller to pay down debt or obtain capital for other needed investments—without having to engage in new borrowing. It should be no different within the context of local government assets.

In recent years, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has brought this concept to local government, implementing a groundbreaking privatization strategy that relies on long-term leases of city assets, generating billions of dollars to boost the city's fiscal health.

http://www.reason.org/commentaries/gilroy_20081119.shtml

[darin]

That's generally a GOOD thing. :)

[5stringJeff]

I agree. It surprised me more than anything.

[Kathianne]

Don't hold your breath, this is not the city of reform:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/1287711,budget-chicago-2009-city-council-111908.article


City Council passes Daley's 2009 budget

Recommend (12) Comments
November 20, 2008
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Mayor Daley’s $6 billion 2009 budget — precariously balanced with 635 or fewer layoffs, slow police hiring and $52.5 million worth of taxes, fines and fees — sailed through the City Council Wednesday amid concern about even tougher times ahead.

The final vote was 49-1 after a two-hour debate. Last year, a Daley budget that included a record $276.5 million in tax and fee increases, including the largest property tax increase in Chicago history, drew 13 dissenting votes.

"Is this problem over yet? Absolutely not," said Budget Committee Chairman Carrie Austin (34th), warning that the worst financial crisis of Daley’s 20-year reign "will get worse before it gets better."

"I’m concerned about the revenue projections in this budget and whether they are realistic…What tricks do we have up our sleeve next year?" said Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd), warning that "nickel and dime" tax and fee increases won’t cut it.

With an unreserved corporate fund balance of just $1.5 million, Chicago has precious little wiggle room.

If already depressed revenues fall even shorter than expected, Wall Street rating agencies warn Daley faces difficult choices: Raid the $500 million Skyway fund; establish a new line of credit to pay employees, contractors and retire debt; or order even deeper budget cuts beyond those already planned.

"Look at what’s happening in Philadelphia. Look at Atlanta. They’re all cutting back. Some cities will eventually go bankrupt. They can’t even meet their payroll," Daley warned earlier this week.

And there’s another potential pitfall. If the mayor doesn’t seal the deal to privatize Chicago's 35,000 parking meters by year's end — and get at least $150 million from the transaction to use for operations this year and next — he’ll have to find another way to close that gap.

The bottom line is that the City Council took what downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) has called a "leap of faith" by approving the mayor’s $6 billion budget.

For aldermen and their constituents, it’s already a painful leap.

Daley’s decision to lay off 635 employees and eliminate more than 1,600 vacancies means Chicago will wait longer to hire police officers, plow a side-street, fill a pothole, trim a tree, sweep a street and clean a vacant lot.....

[5stringJeff]

Yikes!

[Kathianne]

Yikes!

Yep, never trust Chicago/Illinois politicians. Today Durbin appealed to Bush for the clemency for Ryan, saying he has shown 'remorse.' This is unreal.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-durbin-bd-30-nov30,0,3254091.column


Dick Durbin misses the point about Ryan

John Kass

9:47 PM CST, November 29, 2008


Just before Thanksgiving, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) moistened his finger and, as he has done so many times in his career, held the digit aloft to check the prevailing winds.

This time, when he figured the winds were just right, Durbin lofted his trial balloon that carried with it the hopes and dreams of the corrupt bipartisan Combine that runs this state.
...

Ryan betrayed the people, who have a right to expect honest service from their government. His corruption also left a body count. Nine people, including the six Willis children, were killed in crashes with truck drivers who paid bribes for licenses when Ryan was Illinois secretary of state.

Dozens of others in his office went to prison before him, convicted of selling licenses for bribes, with much of the money going into Ryan's campaign fund so he could be elected governor. And others were ruined.

And now his allies want to redeem him, though Ryan refuses to acknowledge his specific crimes? In what universe does redemption come without cost, where cynicism so casually dresses itself up as mercy and compassion?

Here. In this place. In Illinois.

Durbin's announcement prompted the usual media hand-wringing, particularly from the political left, which Ryan co-opted then bought as governor when he cleared Death Row in a convulsive spasm of compassion, just as the feds were closing in on him and he was contemplating the likelihood of facing a jury.

But Ryan's jury was not fooled when it convicted him of 18 counts in 2006. The jurors heard the testimony about how, after the Willis children were burned to death in an accident involving a bribe-paying trucker, Ryan squashed the bribery investigation. And last week, the Tribune's editorial board was also not fooled. The board was quite unequivocal in popping Durbin's balloon.

Yet the balloon had already left Durbin's fingertips, and had flown above Illinois, mocking all the people under it, except for the feudal Combine overlords. Surely they toasted Durbin's wisdom at the steakhouses where Ryan loved to gorge. And why shouldn't they cheer?

Ryan is their guy. He can't take prison any longer, and the Combine must keep him happily mute. And after a long and distinguished career, Durbin announced which side he's on: theirs.

Predictably and almost immediately, another Illinois politician jumped onto Durbin's Free Ryan Express—Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Blagojevich once campaigned as a reformer to replace Ryan in Springfield, but now he is somewhat of a cartoon and willingly wears the trappings of a clown. These days Blagojevich has so many federal investigations crawling up his legs they must tingle in anticipation of an unhappy ending.

Like Durbin, Blagojevich invoked the frail health of Ryan's wife, and Ryan's own health problems, and said the Republican governor had already paid "a significant price" and that a commutation by Bush would be a "fine decision."....


http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2008/11/keep-ryan-and-his-conscience-locked-up.html


Originally posted: November 26, 2008
Keep Ryan and his `conscience' locked up
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin said Tuesday he is considering asking President George W. Bush to commute the prison sentence of George Ryan, contending the former Republican governor convicted on federal corruption charges "has paid a price for his wrongdoing."... Tribune story today.

When asked if there were anything George Ryan would change, Lura Lynn Ryan said neither she nor her husband has any regrets. "His conscience is as clear as his mind," she said. "If he had it to do over -- and I've heard him say this -- he would govern the same way as he did before.... Sun-Times story today

Honestly, it would probably soften my already holiday-softened heart if Ryan were accepting responsibility for his crimes and pleading for forgiveness and mercy from his cell in a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. He's 74, he's lost his good name, his fat pension and, for the last year, his freedom.

But his failure to apologize or even to recognize his crimes hardens my heart. As the men who prosecuted him wrote in a statement (see below) opposing Ryan's release, "one of the principal factors in determining whether commutation is appropriate is whether the petitioner has demonstrated acceptance of responsibility, remorse and atonement."...