Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to have five global financial companies lend the city $1.7 billion to help rebuild deteriorating infrastructure has elicited the ire of a coalition of community groups that call the move the “Great Chicago Sell-Off,” the
Chicago Sun Times reports.
“Rahm’s trust fund would require revenue streams to repay the big banks and financiers, which means higher user fees,” said Amisha Patel, executive director of the group, the Grassroots Collaborative.
“The Chicago Infrastructure Trust would enable global financiers to lend Chicago millions of dollars in projects that would guarantee their profits while leaving Chicago working families on the hook,” Patel told the Chicago Sun Times.
The Grassroots Collaborative has demanded that city aldermen reject Emanuel’s plan because the city already is saddled by too much debt. The coalition, instead, argued that Chicago must find innovative ways to rebuild the city’s infrastructure that do not require general obligation bonds backed by property tax increases.
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