With the think tank promoted concept of revenue stream
repayment to private investors in government infrastructure construction
projects languishing in legislative limbo in Washington DC and Springfield,
Chicago’s newly elected Mayor Rahm Emmanuel has stuck out his neck with the
announcement of formation of a Chicago Infrastructure Trust to attract private
funding for city building energy retrofits, a rapid ride bus system, and
extension of the southern end of the CTA red line light rail service. Local officials of Citibank and JP Morgan
Asset Management have expressed “preliminary non-binding interest” in ivesting
in the Trust.
Emmanuel made the announcement in a speech to Carpenter Union
trainees at an appresticeship shop March 1, 2012. Acknowledging the ongoing
declines in federal and state funding for infrastructure construction, Emmanuel
told the aspiring union carpenters “Our needs are growing. I can either look at
that challenge, and stare at it hoping it gets better, or do something about
it.” Whether the “non-binding interest” by private investors will materialze
into real dollars invested remains to be seen.
