— Chicago’s Morning Answer with Dan Profit —
Under the proposal for the city’s latest parking meter deal, Chicago Parking Meters LLC would sell the meters to Stone Peak Partners, a New York-based investment firm, for $2.53 billion, nearly two decades after the city’s original 75-year lease of the meters in 2008. The deal includes a requirement that Stone Peak divest its subsidiary Omni Air International, which holds a Department of Homeland Security contract for deportation flights, a condition sought by the City Council’s Democratic Socialist caucus. In exchange, Stone Peak would pay the city $75 million at closing and 5 percent of its net operating income annually over 57 years, a stream host Dan Proft noted is projected to total roughly $376 million, with both payments earmarked for the city’s pension funds.
Susana Mendoza, the Illinois comptroller and a candidate in the city’s mayoral race, said the new arrangement is an improvement over the original 2008 lease but remains a bad deal overall, one she said never should have happened in the first place. Asked how her current campaign differs from her unsuccessful 2019 mayoral run, Mendoza said she had only a two-month window to campaign that cycle because of the timing of her reelection to comptroller, compared to the yearlong listening tour she has conducted across Chicago neighborhoods this time after choosing not to seek another term in her current office.
Mendoza drew a contrast with rival candidate Alexi Giannoulias, who is running for mayor while still holding his position as Illinois secretary of state, saying candidates who keep a fallback option are hedging their bets rather than committing fully to the city. She said the city’s financial position requires transformative rather than incremental change, citing pension systems for police, fire, and other city employees that she said are collectively funded at only around 28 percent, compared to a national average near 82 percent, and argued the city needs to consolidate pension functions, create dedicated revenue lock boxes, and offer early buyouts to stabilize the system.
On economic policy, Mendoza said she opposed Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed corporate head tax and argued the city should treat small businesses as partners rather than sources of fees and fines, saying her approach would be to reduce regulatory burdens and help businesses grow rather than extract more revenue from them. She pointed to her record of cutting budgets and returning unspent funds during her tenure as comptroller as evidence she would apply the same approach to the city’s books.
Mendoza said she supports increased police funding and rejected any association with the “defund the police” movement, citing her brother’s career as a police officer. On education, she said she sends her own child to Chicago Public Schools but supports funding options for families in both public and private schools, including opting into a federal tax-credit scholarship program that some Democratic-led states have already adopted. Asked about her campaign coalition heading into a crowded field, Mendoza said her strategy relies on direct, in-person outreach across all of Chicago’s neighborhoods rather than television advertising, pointing to her 2022 reelection as comptroller, when she said she spent far less per vote than her statewide colleagues while still outperforming them in total votes.
Mendoza also noted she has largely avoided invoking President Trump’s name in discussing Chicago’s problems, saying she prefers to focus on issues within the city’s control regardless of who holds the presidency, even though she did not support Trump in the last election. She named public safety and the city’s fiscal health as her top priorities, and said her ultimate motivation for running is the legacy she hopes to leave for her 13-year-old son and future grandchildren, citing her combined experience as a state legislator, Chicago city clerk, and state comptroller as distinguishing her from the rest of the field.
