Reply #14: Here is what Bloomberg says about it.

[JDPriestly]

Here is what Bloomberg News said about the parking meter deal

Chicago drivers will pay a Morgan Stanley-led partnership at least $11.6 billion to park at city meters over the next 75 years, 10 times what Mayor Richard Daley got when he leased the system to investors in 2008.

Morgan Stanley, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Allianz Capital Partners may earn a profit of $9.58 billion before interest, taxes and depreciation, according to documents for a $500 million private note sale by their Chicago Parking Meters LLC venture. That is equivalent to 80 cents per dollar of projected revenue. Standard Parking Corp., which runs 30,000 spaces at the city’s O’Hare and Midway airports, earned 4.84 cents on that basis last year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The deal illustrates how Wall Street banks, recipients of more than $300 billion in taxpayer bailouts in the worst credit collapse since the Great Depression, are profiting from helping states and cities close record recession-induced deficits by selling bonds and leasing public properties. Chicago gave up billions of dollars in revenue when it announced in 2008 that it leased Morgan Stanley its 36,000 parking meters, the third- largest U.S. system, for $1.15 billion to balance its budget, said Alderman Scott Waguespack.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-09/morgan-stanley-group-s-11-billion-from-chicago-meters-makes-taxpayers-cry.html

Here is more:

Bloomberg News reported in August that Chicago’s agreement may earn the Morgan Stanley group 10 times the $1.15 billion lump sum Mayor Richard Daley got when he forced the City Council to consider the deal on a few days notice in 2008, according to documents for a planned private note sale by the Chicago Parking Meters LLC venture. The experience shows the pitfalls of a hasty process that doesn’t weigh all the costs, said former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman.

“It’s a mistake to rush into a deal for such a long period of time without a full public accounting of the pros and cons,” Hoffman said in an interview.

Among the cons for Chicago was that the city was unable to take advantage of falling interest rates by borrowing against parking-meter revenue, Hoffman said. Chicago Parking Meters, the partnership of Morgan Stanley, Allianz SE’s Allianz Capital Partners and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, did.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-15/morgan-stanley-chicago-parking-windfall-makes-cities-redo-deals.html

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