City of Chicago owes parking meter company $20 million in lost revenue

Cars speed past a Chicago parking meter kiosk across the street from St. Alphonsus Catholic Church Monday, April 29, 2013 on Chicago's north side. Chicagoans will soon be getting a break on parking fees — at least on Sundays. Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office announced today the private company that runs the city's parking spaces has agreed to stop charging for parking in Chicago's neighborhoods on Sundays. The mayor's office says the city and Chicago Parking Meters LLC have settled legal disputes over the parking meter contract. The City Council approved a 75-year contract with the company in 2008. In return, the city got $1.1 billion.(AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

As if the infamous parking meter deal wasn’t bad enough for drivers, it’s about to get even worse.

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The City of Chicago owes Chicago Parking Meters a “true-up” payment of $20 million dollars next year. This amount will make up for revenue lost due to meters that are removed temporarily or permanently, and parking spots used by disabled drivers.

The 2008 deal under Mayor Daley gave the city over $1.1 billion but most of this was spent on short-term budget fixes, according to DNAinfo.

In 2013, Mayor Emanuel re-negotiated parts of the contract, including free parking on Sundays in some parts of the city. Those negotiations originally lowered “true-up” payments which at that time found payments to be around $1.65 million per quarter.

The city was also supposed to increase parking rates every year (as per the contract) but has failed to do so in the past five years.

Some of these “true-up” payments have already been made up by construction companies or filming productions that remove parking meters temporarily but it is not nearly enough to cover the whole cost.

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The 2018 “true-up” payment will now result in a 16.3% increase from last year.

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