Value Added: Infrastructure Financing: View from the Prairie State
Illinois is at the center of the nation's road, rail, and air networks, and Chicago's reputation as a hub for infrastructure innovation is unrivalled among major American cities. Now, the Land of Lincoln finds itself at the crux of the debate about financing America's 21st century infrastructure needs.
In 2005, the City of Chicago signed a 99-year lease that transferred all operations and maintenance of the Chicago Skyway, a 7.8-mile toll road, to a Spanish-Australian partnership. The lease, which gave the city a $1.83bn cash infusion, was seen as a prototype for joint private-public infrastructure financing in the United States (this model is already commonplace in Europe).
But subsequent efforts to privatize national infrastructure assets have foundered, even in the Windy City. Just this week, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times reported that Mayor Richard M. Daley has scuttled his plans to sell Midway Airport to a consortium made up of New York's Citi Infrastructure Investors, Vancouver's YVR Airport Services Limited, and Boston's John Hancock Life Insurance...
