Chicago, Illinois Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) is counting on a host of new fees and taxes on drivers to balance the city’s 2009 budget. To wit: a new contract took effect on Saturday authorizing private vendor Redflex to more than double the number of red light camera equipped intersections in Chicago to 290. The first phase of the program had already mailed 1.1 million tickets worth $110m using just 136 cameras, thanks to contract provisions that ensure a steady stream of revenue. “The Office of Emergency Management and Communications has developed and executed the industry’s most stringent performance metrics and key performance indicators,” the new contract states. “(These) include citation issuance minimum yields to equal 85 percent or greater and system uptime to equal 95 percent or greater… At a minimum, installed systems must maintain a minimum 85 percent prosecution rate.” So far, the prosecution rate has been 94 percent. Daley rewarded Redflex by approving a no-bid contract extension. Read it and weep…
The new no-bid contract increases the Australian company’s five-year share of the revenue from $13,449,000 to $32,109,090. Redflex also agreed to allow the city to keep an extra $1,016,400 each year from reduced maintenance charges and to use union labor from a number of subcontracting firms favored by Daley’s administration. Thanks in part to the new cameras, total revenue from all fines and tickets is expected to jump 16.6 percent to $293.5m. The remainder of the increase will come from encouraging meter maids to issue more parking tickets and seizing more automobiles.
“The majority of this increase is related to the expansion and enhancement of current enforcement programs,” the 2009 budget explained. “The 2009 budget also projects additional revenue from enhanced collection of fines related to vehicle impoundment.” Higher taxes on parking will boost transportation tax revenue to $161.6m. Combined with a vehicle registration sticker tax of $105.9m and parking lot fees of $5.9m, Chicago expects to earn $566.9m from drivers in 2009.
Sounds like a good place to stay out of.
Chicago is a pit. I have always felt sorry for the rest of Illinois as it’s a beautiful state.
Chicago is a beautiful city. Expensive but beautiful.
Could be worse…you could be Toronto. They do all that crap, and more, and still don’t balance their budget.
I live in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.
There’s a strip of parking space right across the street where I live with no parking 8 AM – 4:30 PM, near a school, next to no through traffic at all.
Last year you’d only be ticketed if you left your car there all day.
Last week, I get a ticket marked 8:14 AM.
Today I get out of the house a little late, ticket is marked 8:05 AM.
$60 a ticket.
The Picasso statue better be sporting a diamond encrusted grill next time I pass by Daley Plaza.
Nice work taking a story about Chicago city politics and making it about presidential candidate Obama by using his picture in the post even though he had nothing to do with these policies. I’m sure you couldn’t find any pictures of Daly alone online, though, so I understand.
Don’t spin this crap into a presidential story, please. “This is how we do it?” It reeks of Detroit-style truth-warping, and I believe that the integrity of this site is greater than those techniques suggest.
It’s election day, and no matter who for, everybody better get out to the polls and vote!
Solution?
Demand “Roundabouts”.
Install them in future road construction or road rebuilds. Thus, reducing major intersection accidents and eliminate the cost and energy use of traffic signals, not to mention the main benefit of keeping traffic moving instead of people losing time sitting still and gas being wasted idling.
Also, for current intersections, adopt the Germany light control format where the yellow light flashes between the change from red to green. Why is this so cool? It allows folks rolling up to stopped intersections to know if they will need to stop completely or prep for being able to slow down and resume. It also facilitates better departure time from an intersection and thus reduce wasted time in traffic flow.
Daley was a good mayor…10 years ago! There are no term limits on this job, every city employee vote can be counted on, so it looks like we got him till death.
One thing thats bugged me for years is the nationwide obsession with police interceptors. 95% of these things spend their day not getting over 30mph, while sucking two tanks a day. These things need to be crushed ASAP. The choice will soon be pensions or gasoline(or more of this revenue-generating crap).
In old days people said that apple does not fall far from a tree.
Its my home. I love it. And sometimes I hate it. This is one of those times.
It doesn’t surprise me. When it comes to spending and taxes in Chicago, what surprises me is when the politicans actually make cuts to their patronage armies, or find efficiency improvements. Stroger and Daley always tax first, but I think they are sensing the pending revolt next time they’re due for re-election.
I have already noticed the stepped up ticketing. I received 2 bogus tickets in the last 3 months. One I submitted in late August trial-by-mail. Hearing is still pending. Same for the other. When I called to ask, they were very helpful, but she said “we have a very large backlog of hearings the past several months, we will get to yours”. I laugh to think the city picks up ticketing thinking about the revenue, but I guarantee they didn’t consider the increased demands on traffic courts from people fighting these tickets. Oh well, they won’t get my money, or if they do, they’ll get it at the last possible date I can pay it.
A lot of Chicago lights already have very short yellows. I’m sure these new cameras have such a high success rate because the yellows are so short.
What gets me more are two things related to parking and traffic in Chicago. 1) 24 hour minimum notice on tow zones for street cleaning or special events. That’s right, if they are gonna start 9am Wed, they only have to have the signs up by 9am Tuesday. Gives you a lot of opportunity to check your car. Forget to check Tuesday after you get home from work? $50 (or a tow…so they’re doing you a favor when they only ticket your vehicle). And 2) the lack of time you have to pay or contest tickets. You get a ticket and I believe you have 14 days to contest or 21 days to pay. You get it and literally have a week or less to turn it around. Then you mail it in and they sit on it for (in my case) 3-4 months pending hearing. If I have to hurry up and put my defense together, then you should have a limit to how long before you issue a verdict. Fair?
I don’t mind the $75 annual car registration too much. Though most places in the US don’t have this. Then you multiply by the 3 million cars that are probably in the city and you realize how big a number this really is….and it is kind of disgusting.
I have heard rumblings about speed cameras in the city. They’ve already been reducing speed limits and installing speed humps all over. Now that the limits are lower, all they need are some cameras to start the cash factory right up. That might also be the day I am forced to become a criminal and possibly find a way to obscure my license plate….draconian laws result in good people becoming criminals (see prohibition).
Great great city. It really is. And I don’t mind paying some extra for all the great public amenities, beautiful parks, flowers in the medians, etc that we have here. But it disgusts me to think we have some of the highest taxes (in some areas…overall its high but I’m sure not the worst) and some of the biggest patronage and bloat, and its still never enough.
I too was wondering what the picture of Barak Obama has to do with any of this.
But, really you guys are so funny!
Do you all remember back in the good ole 1990s when the GOP party on the local, state, and federal level of govenment enacted a platform were they sold all of you fools on the silly idea that you did not need to pay taxes.
You guys do remember all of that do you not?
Now all of you freedom lovin Americans that hate to pay taxes are dealing with the outcome of that misguided policy and you all appear to hate it!
See those GOP friends of your had a very good plan: kill government (your power) and hand it over to their money making businessmen friends to make big profits and give nice kickbacks to your local “anti-government government official”.
This is what you get! You either pay your taxes up front or they take it out of your a$$ in other much nastier ways. Fees, Fines, Tickets, Red light cameras, high fines, higher fees, broken roads, etc, need I go on!
By listen to BS and actually believing it you guys have let the private sector into governemt and they are now raping you left and right FOR PROFIT!!!!!!!
Be careful of what you wish/ask for………….
@ kazoomaloo:
You sure EVERYONE should vote?
When you says “everyone”, you’ve already made a big mistake.
Edit: “When you say” is what I meant…. nice context of the mistake though.
@ whatdoiknow1
It’s pretty clear that red light cameras, higher fines, etc don’t discriminate in favor of Dems or Reps. They’re both infected with the virus that makes them power hungry and wants your money.
Case in point: AZ (reliably Republican) and IL (reliably Democrat) make lots of $$ off red light cameras.
Neither party has earned a break from intense criticism on increased fines, taxes, etc. Those voting for McCain or Obama thinking their taxes will be cut are smoking something.
jkross22
I would like to know answer to a question: did Arizona choose no-bid process like Chicago to get those cameras in? The question is not necessarily what tool is used by government to raise revenue, but how the tool was administered?
No question in my mind, that current anti-republican sentiment was product of republican politicians corruption. However, they got into power in 1994 on the backlash of democratic corruption.
I think the real question: are 2 parties enough? Should be there room for 3rd? Will third party (increased competition) force a shade of transparency?
jkross22:
Sad is it not, what is good for the goose and good for the gander!
The problem is when either party opens the door up to shitty behavior both party have a nasty habit of walking though said door.
What truly scares me today is the rush to privatize everything in the USA. Private prisons run for profit, have you ever heard of anything so sick and twisted?
Everytime our government “sells” its responsibilty we all lose more and more freedom.
If prisons are private and for profit they now have a very nasty incentive to find more and more prisoners. What’s next, private manicipal police forces that are paid based on the number of citizens they arrest? For even 100 arrest made in a given area the company will recive a nice bonus.
To think that some private citizen is holding “private prison bonds” in their retirement account wanting and waiting for more prison traffic to see the value of their investment rise is something we should all wrap our minds around whenever we see another police check point!
Another issue with the safety of Red Light Cameras:
The cameras flash a bright strobe light in order to record the license plate of the offending car, and this is right in the eyes of oncoming traffic.
My office overlooks a corner with the cameras, and on the 6th floor, the light is distracting to me. When I am in a car at the intersection, the flash can be very disorienting. I wonder if this distraction is another thing that increases accidents at these intersections
Airhen:
“Chicago is a pit.
I’ve never heard that before. That’s really past being in touch with reality. Chicago is generally considered to have the best architecture of any US city, and to be one of the cleanest US cities. Compared to NY and LA it’s also very affordable.
The 5% state income tax income and sales tax income from the Chicagoland area also does a lot to support the rest of the state, where people are generally subsidized farmers or part time Wal-Mart employees on Medicaid. Real Americans.
jkross22, I listened to the Howard Stern bit about the clueless Obama supporters, and it is a dreadful example of the embarrassingly underinformed voting public, but at the end of the day, this is a representative democracy and every American citizen has the right to vote – gays, hippies, KKK members, Ultra-fundamentalists, people voting solely on race (one way or the other), Scientologists, idiots, dopes, clowns, EVERYBODY (except for felons and illegal aliens and others who have legally had their right to vote taken away). It’s the only thing that keeps this country from falling apart completely.
When I said everyone, I meant it and I won’t step away from that position. In any case, this is a car website so I’ll just go back to boo-hooing about how GM’s gonna go down before I can ever buy a Cruze.
Anyone that thinks Chicago is corrupt has never lived in a small town, or is not intellectually honest. I have lived in a small town, and the crap that goes on in small towns puts King Daley to shame.
That said, hopefully Illinois, like other states, will adopt legislation preventing cities from using redlight and speed cameras as revenue generators.
@ autonut
Both parties are bought – only the buyers differ. I think we’re overdue for a viable 3rd party, or for people who say they want one to vote in larger numbers for 3rd party candidates.
I’m not familiar with the process that AZ used to ‘seal the deal’ with RedFlex. If they did no bid contract awarding, you’d think voters, at least those paying attention, would vote those people out of office at the earliest opportunity.
@ whatdoiknow1
“Sad is it not, what is good for the goose and good for the gander!”
It’s sad when the taxpayer gets taken for a ride, regardless of which party happens to be driving. Even more sad is the profound intellectual laziness that hard core supporters of both candidates share when questioned on their respective candidate’s weaknesses. While just anecdotal, the hardcore Obama supporters are much worse in this respect.
“What’s next, private manicipal police forces that are paid based on the number of citizens they arrest?”
You mean like a “civilian national security force”?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEnNYN8sKbQ
I sure wish he had been asked about this. Oh well.
The new no-bid contract increases the Australian company’s five-year share of the revenue from $13,449,000 to $32,109,090. Redflex also agreed to allow the city to keep an extra $1,016,400 each year from reduced maintenance charges and to use union labor from a number of subcontracting firms favored by Daley’s administration.
Just the cost of doing business in the Utopian society that Chicago’s Daley Dynasty has created.
Private prisons run for profit, have you ever heard of anything so sick and twisted?
Yes, spending billions to house people who cause damage and destruction to the property and persons of US citizens. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could reduce our prison welfare bill.
@ kazoomaloo
You can get that hot, new Chevy Cruze, but you’d have to go to Korea to get it.
@ kazoomaloo:
The ONLY thing that keeps us from falling apart is voting? (Sorry, I’m on a role.)
Freedom of the press, free speech, independent judiciary, etc, etc. have done as much as the right to vote to prevent us from jumping the shark.
Although according to some (mostly politicians in states with a large D3 presence) the loss of the D3 will spell the end of the Republic. Who knew?
The Obama picture is easy; he’s from the same Chicago political machine that produces these kind of shenanigans. Bodes well for the country if he wins, eh?
The worst part is that the ticket isn’t even half the problem. If it was just the fine I wouldn’t even care, points or no points. What gets me is that for every 10 dollars in fines there’s like, 100 dollars in higher insurance premiums!
jkross…AZ is no longer a Red state. All the commies from Illinois and CA have taken over. Plus the huge population of ill-informed college kids. We have one of the most liberal Governors in the nation who has put us in debt to the tune of $2B. Now, she put up speed cameras EVERYWHERE (100 of them) to raise money, and to her credit, wasn’t even apologetic, and in fact, very up front about it. You get a $186 (i think) fine, no points from these new cameras. I think somewhere someone will realize that these cameras are on freeways build with primarily Federal funds, and it will likely be an issue resolved Federally. They’ll want their cut somehow.
Oh, and you think it’s bad now, just wait till Osama…err Obama is in office. Only rich people drive, right?
The only way to avoid the Daley embarrassment is to leave town. If you don’t have a home you just couldn’t stand to leave, I don’t know why you would stay. There are plenty of decent suburban towns, and you can even cross the state line.
I am so glad we have term limits, it keeps machines like Chicago’s from getting so strong they can’t be uprooted.
@ autonut
Yes, Arizona had a contract competition. Redflex had the Scottsdale Loop 101 prototype program, then it was awarded to ATS. Then Redflex got the big statewide contract.
ATS challenged the contract award on the minor technicality that Redflex was using illegal radar units. The state ignored these complaints.
As for whether scameras and privatization are a Republican or Democrat — they absolutely are not. Napolitano (D) is Arizona’s scamera Queen. Connecticut’s Rell (R) tried and failed to copy her idea.
Indiana’s Mitch Daniels (R) is Mr. Toll everything. But so is New Jersey’s Corzine (D) and Virginia’s Tim Kaine (D). And you Obamessiah types are about to find out the hard way that your new president runs with this crowd — a fan of Bloomberg’s congestion tax and a sponsor of a road privatization bank bill (which is code for toll every road).
Jerome10 is absolutely right… I also live in the city and his analysis is totally correct.
I also don’t see what Obama has to do with this story… but ok.
Richard D,
You are correct sir, bigger more intrusive government is now coming at us from both parties. The good news for the republicans is that after yesterday, it will be the democrats that get blamed for it next.
It doesn’t really surprise me – these are such money makers. I don’t run red lights, but I got nabbed by making a legal right on red without fully stopping. I don’t want anyone to run red lights, but I also don’t want to fund the city coffers.
My neighbor bought a GPS locator that tells you where all the cameras are located.
http://www.redlightcameradetectors.com