If President-elect Obama is planning on visiting the old neighborhood in Hyde Park anytime soon, his motorcade better bring plenty of quarters. Mayor Richard Daley recently completed a deal to lease all 36,000 of Chicago's parking meters for the one time lump sum of $1.2 billion. The deal will transfer the meters into private hands for the next 75 years.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the deal will result in the quadrupling of meter costs in two-thirds of the city's meters. Neighborhood spots that previously cost 25 cents an hour will go up to $1 an hour, and eventually $2 an hour by 2013. The meter rates in the downtown Loop will rise from $3 an hour to $6.50 an hour within the next five years.

The winning bid for the parking meters came from a conglomerate of three infrastructure funds run by Morgan Stanley, the same group that won control of city parking garages in 2006. Mayor Daley's nephew, William Daley Jr., works for Morgan Stanley and lobbies state and county officials on the firm's behalf. A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman told The Tribune that Daley had no involvement in the Chicago deal.

City Aldermen, who approved the measure by a 40-5 margin, claimed that they were given only 72 hours to consider the pros and cons of a plan that can define transportation in the nation's third largest city for the better part of the next century. "I wish we had other options at our disposal to help balance this budget without entering this 75-year concession agreement with one of our most valuable public assets, but we're in the situation we're in, with not many options" Alderman Brendan Reilly told the Tribune.  Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, one of five members of the council to reject the plan, claimed that Aldermen were being turned into "partners in our own marginalization."

Some members of the council were blunter in their reasoning for supporting the measure. Alderman Richard Mell described the deal as being a "once-in-a-lifetime shot to grab this pool of money." Mell should know a thing or two about grabbing fast cash --- his son-in-law is Governor Rod Blagojevich.

In addition to the proposed parking hikes, Mayor Daley has taken the lead on even more costly traffic-related measures. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Daley introduced (at the same time as the meter plan) a congestion pricing initiative that would require motorists who park in downtown Chicago to pay a fee. Additionally, truckers who make deliveries during peak hours would pay a fee for every minute they block traffic. The fees collected would be put into a "congestion reduction fund" that would finance public improvements such as more trains and buses serving downtown, turn lanes and synchronized traffic signals.

Daley is hardly the first politician to attempt tying the twin quagmires of budget deficits and transportation reform together. Mayor Bloomberg attempted introducing a comprehensive congestion pricing plan in New York City earlier this year, only to be met with outrage by outer borough residents who feared their neighborhoods would be turned into commuter parking lots. In New Jersey, Governor Jon Corzine unveiled a plan for a private firm to build an extension on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway for drivers willing to pay extra for the privilege of driving on the private highway and avoiding traffic. In Massachusetts lawmakers looking to pay off the debt left over from the infamous "Big Dig" have been presented with a choice by Governor Deval Patrick: massive toll hikes or the privatization of the Massachusetts Turnpike.

Privatization can provide a much needed cash injection for governments faced with a budget shortfall, but it is hardly a panacea. For instance, the New Jersey plan leaves the door open for what amounts to congestion profiteering. Jonathan R. Peters, associate professor of finance at the College of Staten Island, told the New York Times that "The more congested the general purpose lanes, the better the value of the franchise of the express lanes." Community Organizer Peter Humphreys told The Times that "The turnpike is for everybody, and I'm not sure I want to have lanes that are just for rich people and other lanes that are just for ordinary folks."

Only time will tell if plans like the one recently introduced by Daley are successful, its long-term implications being much cloudier than its obvious short-term impact. It is clear that when faced with both a budgetary and economic crisis, elected officials are going to have to start thinking outside the box and making some tough decisions. The danger is putting all your faith into any one particular plan, like State Senator Raymond Lesniak of New Jersey who described the turnpike privatization plan as being "like magic." A better approach might be found in the pragmatism of Alderman Robert Fioretti in Chicago, who described that city's privatization plan as being simply "a good ordinance that is going to help us in the next five years, when we are going to have a most difficult time." In tough times, maybe that's the most one can ask for.

Pay to play, pay to park

Also of Interest:

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[+] FBI's Top Ten News Stories from last week

[+] The parking ticket that turned one man homeless