This is around the same time that PA tried to lease their turnpike, and cities all over the US were facing a post-boom hangover when projected revenues from permits and property taxes didn't align with budget realities.
I'm not defending the decision, but it was far more shortsightedness than corruption.
But Chicago did lease the parking garage underneath Millennium Park to the same parking meter investor group. And that deal went bankrupt with the lease going back to the lender (who set up a new consortium which is also on the verge of bankruptcy).
So basically the two parking deals have just now broken even ;)
> Amid a legal skirmish with the city over the underground parking garages, the venture is in talks to relinquish them to banking giant Societe Generale S.A., which provided a $403 million loan to finance the 2006 deal, sources said. It's a sign that the investment has lost so much value with little prospect of a turnaround that the venture no longer sees a reason to own it.
> Chicago CFO Gene Saffold said the Midway Investment and Development Company, the group that successfully bid on the 99-year airport lease in September, was unable to secure financing, leading to the deal’s demise.
People are often trying to implement and shorten term limits. But it amplifies this problem, and it gives lawmakers an incentive to line up their next job in the private sector while in office.
It was done at the end of the reign of someone who had been mayor for 22 years, whose father had been mayor for 21 years. There aren't really any laws against corruption in Illinois unless you get both sides of a clearly stated quid pro quo on tape, and physical proof of the action and the compensation actually having occurred. It's also illegal to tape people unless they consent.
