Daley to Obama: 'Think outside the box'
Mayor Daley has already unloaded four of Chicago’s most valuable assets for a $6 billion mountain of cash amid concern he is mortgaging the city’s future.
Now, he wants President Obama to follow Chicago’s lead.
After returning from what he called “emotional” inauguration festivities in Washington, Daley urged the new president to “think outside the box.”
“If they start leasing public assets — every city, every county, every state and the federal government — you would not have to raise any taxes whatsoever. You would have more infrastructure money that way than any other way in the nation,” Daley said.
“But, that is thinking outside the box and very few governments ever, ever think outside the box.”
Pressed to pinpoint federal assets that could be turned into money-makers, Daley demurred, apparently unwilling to put Obama in a political box.
But, he did flesh out a concept he claimed could reverse wave after wave of Wall Street layoffs.
“They’re not gonna raise the gasoline tax. So, how do you get more and more money for infrastructure? One way is to have an oversight board by the federal government dealing with leasing — both in the city, county and state and, of course, the federal government,” Daley said.
“Just our deal alone at Midway Airport, we had to hire Blair & Co. Every bidder had to hire financial people. You would put all the financial people back to work for the next 10 or 15 years” if you started leasing assets at all levels.
Privatizing federal assets wasn't the only public piece of advice the mayor had to offer to Obama.
Daley also talked about the need to shrink the federal payroll, just as he has done at City Hall.
"When you come back from Washington, there's no economic crisis [there]. Not one federal employee has been laid off. Home prices are higher today that they ever were before. It’s like a federal sanctuary. There’s economic development going on because of our federal tax dollars. And that’s wrong [when] the rest of the country is suffering,” Daley said.
“You cannot have a federal government growing in numbers and local and state government…and the private sector and not-for-profits reducing. You’ll have Russia all over again….I wish I could put on 50,000, 100,000 policemen. But, you can’t in economic crisis. You have to make tough decisions and [start] thinking about the taxpayers. I’m not criticizing anyone. It’s just a fact.”
The great Chicago sell-off started with the Skyway ($1.83 billion), continued with downtown parking garages ($563 million) and Midway Airport ($2.5 billion) and culminated last month with the sale of Chicago parking meters ($1.15 billion).
The Midway deal was rushed through the City Council to beat the change of administrations in Washington, only to have Federal Aviation Administration approval delayed until spring because the Vancouver-based YVR Airport Services was still finalizing its list of investors.
Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd), one of five aldermen to vote against the parking meter lease, has argued that taxpayers would have made as much as $4 billion by raising rates and keeping the meters.
Instead, the 75-year lease includes a steep schedule of meter rate increases that will benefit the new owner.
“You have five years of mid-term budget relief. But, what happens after that? We’re losing a great revenue stream for the next 70 years,” he said.
Daley has said repeatedly he’s not concerned about the future — not when he has a mountain of cash to keep building while other cities are cutting back.