City Hall’s plan to privatize 10 parking structures to cover its $208million deficit without having to go into bankruptcy hit a snag Tuesday
– the biggest tax scofflaws in the city are parking lot operators.
For
years, city officials did little or nothing to collect the $400 million
owed it by companies and individuals — topping the list of debtors are
parking lot operators who owe the city more than $100 million.
In
an emotional and sometimes angry Council session Tuesday, the issue
came up as an embarrassment and obstacle to turning over operation of
the city’s lots to the same group of people who have ripped the city
off.
Nonetheless, the Council unanimously approved spending more
than $500,000 more for a total of $1.2 million to move forward with
studies to privatize its parking structures.
For a full report, got to OurLA.org and read stories headliined Parking Lot Privatization Triggers Heated Council Debate and Looking For Funds in LA Parking Structures,
Tax Scofflaws. Lists of top debtors headed by parking lot operators are also available..
LA’s Jive-talkin’ Mayor Antonio VillaEbonics
Linder.com
http://linder.com/archives/1162
GREAT point, Ron! We already have “public-private parking partnerships,” don’t we? And these guys have shown City Hall will not just be the silent partner, but the coma partner.
I’ve been looking into these deals in Chicago and elsewhere, and guess what? The Attorney General in Chicago, I gather, is starting to investigate campaign contributions made by the parking companies and their lawyers to the politicians who voted for the “partnerships.”
Here’s the url for a Chicago story on that:
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/parking-ticket-geek/2010/02/politics-parking-meters.html
I’m telling you, it’s a scam!
The obvious problem is that this is a one-time infusion of funds and then the following year, there will be another shortfall with no more public assets to sell off.
For Ron and Walter – This is from Chicago:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/ct-met-0126-tollway-poll-20100125,0,6256936.story
Privatize Illinois’ tollways? Voters say no
Voters of both parties overwhelmingly reject the idea, but some candidates back idea
Privatizing the Illinois Tollway system could reap $23.8 billion, according to a 2006 estimate. (Tribune photo by Scott Strazzante / January 24, 2010)
Richard M. Daley
Midway Airport By Richard Wronski, Tribune reporter
January 25, 2010
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Politicians who hope to gain traction with voters by urging that the Illinois Tollway be leased to a private company might want to rethink their strategy.
By overwhelming numbers, Republican and Democratic voters alike oppose privatization of the tollway system and believe it would lead to higher tolls, according to a Tribune/WGN-TV poll.
The statewide poll of likely primary voters, conducted Jan. 16 to 20, shows Democrats opposing privatization 72 percent to 14 percent, with 13 percent undecided. Republicans oppose the idea 65 percent to 16 percent, with 19 percent undecided.
Why? Among Democrats, 71 percent say tolls are certain to increase if the tollway is leased to a private company; 68 percent of Republicans feel the same way.
The idea of leasing the tollway has been floated — and shot down — before, in Illinois and elsewhere. Several states are considering similar plans.
GOP gubernatorial contender Jim Ryan recently became the most prominent candidate to suggest the plan. The former Illinois attorney general noted that a long-term lease of the 286-mile system could generate billions of dollars to fund public works improvements across the state.
Ryan pointed to Indiana’s lease of the Indiana Toll Road for $3.8 billion as a guide.
A consultant’s report commissioned by the General Assembly in 2006 estimated Illinois could receive up to $23.8 billion by leasing the tollway system under a 75-year contract. The estimate assumed increases in tolls by 50 percent every 20 years.
These days, however, experts say a tollway lease would command far less because of the poor economy. The global credit crunch killed Chicago’s proposed deal to lease Midway Airport for $2.5 billion last year.
Tollway officials had no comment on such a plan.
Critics say privatizing public assets amounts to a temporary fix. Many point to how Mayor Richard Daley’s deal to lease the city’s parking meters provided a one-time windfall but led to steep rate hikes, broken machines and unhappy users.
Frequent tollway user Alex Sidorowych, 56, of Lake Zurich, called tollway privatization a “bad idea.”
“It’s a taxpayers’ asset, and I think it should stay with the state,” said Sidorowych, a property manager who drives the tollways for business.
Motorist David Cromley, 52, a salesman from Sugar Grove, agreed: “There’s no doubt private industry could run the system better … based on the mismanagement in the public sector. But the private sector has to show a profit. I think prices would go up more, and maintenance would go down to a worse level.”
Chicago leased the Chicago Skyway to a Euro-Australian consortium in 2004 for 99 years for $1.83 billion. Since then, the toll for cars on the 7.8-mile stretch has risen to $3 from $2.
The lease allows tolls to rise to $3.50 in 2011, $4 in 2013, $4.50 in 2015 and $5 in 2017.
A benefit of the skyway lease is it frees the city from having to maintain the toll bridge, while providing long-term funding, said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a non-partisan fiscal watchdog group.
But the parking meter lease turned into a fiasco because the deal was struck with no public scrutiny, he said.
The worst thing the state could do is use the proceeds from a tollway lease to relieve pressure on the state’s operating budget, which faces a $12 billion deficit, Msall said.
State Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg, D-Evanston, proposed leasing the tollway in 2006, but the idea was doused by suburban GOP legislators.
Schoenberg said he finds it “somewhat ironic if not amusing” that some Republican candidates for governor are now talking up the same idea.
“It’s quite different from the harsh criticism many of them were lobbing my way a couple of years ago,” he said. “Now they’re more interested, and I’m more skeptical.”
Schoenberg also disagrees with those like Ryan who would suggest using lease proceeds for roads or infrastructure. The most prudent path, Schoenberg said, is to use the funds to pay down the state’s massive unfunded pension liability, estimated at $80 billion.
This past fall, the tollway wrapped up its $6.1 billion rebuilding and widening program. But the five years of construction have saddled the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority with $4 billion in debt that won’t be paid off until 2034.
And state law requires toll revenues to be reinvested in the tollway, not channeled to other agencies or the state’s general fund.
Keeping the system the way it is works just fine for Tammy Clayton, 46, of Harvey, a postal worker who commutes 100 miles a day on the tollway.
“I like the way things are now,” Clayton said while on a dinner break at the Hinsdale Oasis on the Tri-State Tollway (I-294). “The tolls would probably go up extremely (with a lease). It would make things pretty difficult for me.”
rwronski@tribune.com
rwronski@tribune.com
Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune
The idea that they would not have someone out there in the city collecting the money that is owed to them is beyond incompetent.
I heard a group of activists actually volunteered to sit and make the collection calls. Hmm, why would the city not want to collect the money that is owed to them? Especially when they could save at least one of the departments that is getting cut with the collection from those who owe money.
Only in LA…
And we pay these councilmen?
Maybe we’re on some reality show prank or something. I don’t know how else to wrap my brain around it. Maybe someone out there can explain?
GET the phone numbers of these firms and post them here. Everyone call and ask, ‘why haven’t you paid?’. Post the lame responses; should be entertaining at the very least.
Might as well post the phone numbers of the City bureaucrats charged with collections and call them too. Ask, ‘why are you waiting?’
Agree with 3:16 AM; this is ridiculous!
The idea that they would not have someone out there in the city collecting the money that is owed to them is beyond incompetent.
Isn’t that the City Controller’s job? Maybe Laura Chick and her successor Wendy Greuel should have been and should now be auditing their own house rather than chasing headlines and political points over meaningless “performance audits” of other city departments and elected officials.
Citygate Associates of Sacramento has been hired to assist in hiring the GM of Animal Services. Sacramento? And the Mayor wants to create jobs in LA? It`s all B.S. BTW, does anybody know who Citygate is? I wonder what ” future obligations” are accumulated……….
What the DA Integrity unit should start by looking at is all of the parking lot vendors and other business entities who owe a lot of past taxes.
Then compare that list to all of who their campaign contributions and their lobbyist contributions.
That list should be publicized.
Most of City Council are just plain stupid, they should resign. Parks, how did you ever make Police Chief??
Well, once again the Garcetti gang kicked the can down the street – the layoff recommendations need to be studied and alternatives possibly involving some fringe elements within LAPD to be included in a new proposal – and that report is due in 30 days – another stall – we mustn’t antagonize our beloved union contributors.
THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE 2.3% SHORTFALL IN INCOME, IT’S THE 10% INCREASE IN EXPENSES!
The Mayor’s Office has doubled in size from 100 to 200 in less than two years, as an example.
Exorbitant raises for DWP employees while the rest of the working public received no raises this year.
Council continues to engage consultants to do the work that City employees are paid to do.
Oh, and did you hear the rationale for continuing to dole out money to performers and artists who can’t get a paying gig by themselves – by hiring (giving grants to) these wanna-be’s, the restaurants near the performance site will be filled with hungry art patrons – that’s the job-creating mentality – and guess who those restaurants will be hiring – illegal aliens to wash dishes and bus tables and prepare the food -
RECALL THE GARCETTI GANG AND IMPEACH TEFLON TONY!
To Disenchanted in Miracle Mile:
Your earlier comment:
Long-term solutions:
-Change Election Day to coincide with a federal election (either primary or general).
-Declare bankruptcy and let a judge rip up the contracts the city has with the unions.
are absolutely correct and perfect. Had the City held their primary elections in November 2008 rather than March 2009 the results would have been much different. Yes, they are geared so folks have election burn-out on purpose, so the only large majority interested in voting are the Unions and those connected to them.
Regarding Bankruptcy for the City will certainly be a first; however we the Citizens of California might want to look to a larger scale. Very possibly the State should go Bankrupt and all of the “very” generous pension obligations be readjusted to a more logical rate, i.e.: pay what you can afford. A good example of this is the Federal Pension Guarantee Corporation.
I do know that for the elections to be changed is a matter the City Charter addresses. The Charter needs to be amended. As a matter of fact, there are probably twenty items that need to be addressed.
In my opinion the Citizens of Los Angeles needs to hold a “C3″, a City Charter Convention.
Did Citygate Associates of Sacramento also hire that incompetent Gail Goldberg of Planning Department.
My, my, my, imagine that. The self-same deadbeats who refuse to pay the city, want to buy our parking structures. Who would have thunk that! Of course, Tony the Turncoat and company see absolutely nothing wrong with this! Why stand up for the citizens, enforce the laws and bring in money is rightfully owed the City when you can sacrifice your employees and still enjoy favored status with your lobbyist overloads! Makes perfect sense! Especially if your the really, really, overpaid elected elite like ours!
My, my, my, imagine that. The self-same deadbeats who refuse to pay the city, want to buy our parking structures. Who would have thunk that! Of course, Tony the Turncoat and company see absolutely nothing wrong with this! Why stand up for the citizens, enforce the laws and bring in money is rightfully owed the City when you can sacrifice your employees and still enjoy favored status with your lobbyist overloads! Makes perfect sense! Especially if your the really, really, overpaid elected elite like ours!