Chicago will never again sell a public asset for a fraction of what it's worth. The Public Assets Protection Act requires an independent valuation, competitive bidding and a supermajority vote of the City Council before any public asset — parking, water, transit, or Chicago's own data — can be sold, leased, or commercialized away from the city.
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PART OF THE NEW BURNHAM PLAN
ABATE
Public Assets Protection Act (PAPA)
Chicago should hold on to the public assets it owns, like its water system, streets and parking, instead of selling them off for quick cash.
Under the Public Assets Protection Act, selling or leasing a money-making city asset for more than ten years takes competitive bids, an independent valuation and a City Council supermajority, and the deal has to beat what the city would make by keeping it.
Chicago has made that trade again and again: the parking meters, the Skyway, the garages. The buyer pays once and collects for decades. It's selling the furniture to pay the heating bill, then still owing the heating bill next year.
This act sets the rule. The water system, streets, parks and lakefront are never sold. Parking, airports and public buildings stay city-owned, though private companies can still run them under contract. Any other sale or lease of a money-making asset for more than ten years has to pass four tests: at least three public bids, an independent valuation, City Council approval, and proof that the deal beats the city running the asset itself.
When city money makes a big project possible, the city takes a silent ownership stake in it, the way any investor would. Data the city produces belongs to the city. And within 90 days of taking office, I'll launch an audit of every major asset deal since 2004 to find out what Chicago lost and what it can recover.
WHAT IT WON'T DO
It doesn't shut out private business. Companies can still operate city assets under long-term contracts, and developers can still partner with the city. The city just keeps the title and shares in the return.
It doesn't assume every old deal was bad. If the audit finds a deal was legitimate, it says so. If the city lost out, it pursues recovery where the law allows.
How it connects
Nothing in this plan works alone. These are the questions people ask next, and the policies that answer them.
What about the deals already signed? Dibs On Our Streets asks the Inspector General to investigate the 2008 parking meter lease and has the city's lawyers challenge it in court.
Dibs On Our Streets →
Who owns the data the city generates? The Chicago Data & Technology Alliance gives Chicago co-ownership of its data and a share of the profits when companies build products on it.
Chicago Data & Technology Alliance →
Where else does the city take a stake instead of a fee? The Chicago Sovereign Fund recruits companies that make what the city buys to build here, and the city takes an ownership stake in them.
Chicago Sovereign Fund →
FISCAL IMPACT
Revenue Neutral
RENOVATION STEP
Abate
SHOW THE FULL POLICY DETAILS
01
Where it ranks
HOW WE DELIVER IT · PROTECT IT
#3 of 3
PROTECT IT
67.5 / 100
Enables
Scale
Long-term
PROMISING It requires an independent valuation, competitive bidding and a supermajority vote of the City Council before any public asset, including Chicago's own data, can be sold or leased. That stops the next parking-meter deal and protects city assets and data. It is a guardrail. It takes effect in Year 1, and it protects every taxpayer, though nobody feels it day to day.
See all the priorities
How I set them
02
How it works
Four tests before any sale or long lease
No income-producing city asset can be sold, permanently transferred or leased for more than 10 years unless all four tests are met: at least three qualified bids, with every bid and the scoring criteria made public; an independent valuation by a firm with no ties to the city, the bidders or the deal's advisors, with its method published; approval by two-thirds of the City Council (34 of 50); and an independent analysis showing the deal beats the city running the asset itself.
Three tiers of assets
Tier 1, which is never sold, includes the water system, streets, parks, the lakefront and transit rights-of-way. Tier 2, which the city keeps and earns a return on, includes parking, airports, public buildings and city broadband. Long-term operating contracts are allowed, but outright sale is banned and the city keeps legal ownership. In Tier 3, the city partners on development sites and similar projects and keeps an ownership stake in proportion to the land or infrastructure it puts in.
City money earns a return
Projects over $10 million funded through tax increment financing (TIF, where the growth in property taxes in an area is set aside for development deals) give the city a silent ownership stake (a share of ownership with no role in running the project) in proportion to the TIF money. Projects using the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit that get more than $5 million in city money do the same. Infrastructure subsidies over $2 million earn the city a share of the revenue or an ownership stake. City land is leased, not sold, and the rent for the land rises to market rates.
Chicago Public Data Authority
A new city office governs data-sharing with universities and companies. New agreements must give the city co-ownership of any intellectual property built from its data, and any commercial product built on Chicago data owes the city a stake or a permanent royalty. The Authority can license anonymized city data, and it audits existing agreements with the University of Chicago and Northwestern within 180 days.
Revolving door
For three years after leaving, a former city employee can't commercialize work, data access or knowledge from their city job. Violations can be recovered in civil court. This is separate from the 24-month rule in the Public Work Act (the policy that extends public-records, purchasing-disclosure and lobbying rules to every organization doing public work for Chicago), which covers working on projects with your old department.
Sole-source contracts rebid
Every technology contract awarded without competition that uses Chicago data is rebid competitively within the first term, including the Police Department's early-intervention system.
The Extraction Audit
Within 90 days, the city begins a review of every major asset deal and every technology contract awarded without competition since 2004: the Skyway (2005), the parking garages (2006), the parking meters (2008), the Midway privatization attempt and the Ventra fare contract. It's backed by 29 public-records requests ready to file on Day One and a request asking the Illinois Attorney General to partner on it. Where the law allows, the city tries to recover the money. If a deal was legitimate, the audit says so.
03
What it costs
Data licensing revenue (policy estimate, from Years 2–3)
$5–25M a year
This policy is mainly a set of rules. Its only costs are the new data office and the audit of past deals. The data licensing figure is the policy's own estimate.
04
What it takes to make it happen
CITY COUNCIL
Pass the ordinance that creates the four tests, the asset tiers, the rules for when city money earns a return, the revolving-door rule and the Chicago Public Data Authority.
MAYOR
Sign a Day One executive order, file the 29 prepared public-records requests, and launch the Extraction Audit within 90 days.
ILLINOIS ATTORNEY GENERAL
The city asks the Attorney General's office to partner on the audit.
SPRINGFIELD
The policy doesn't ask Springfield for anything.
VOTERS
No referendum is needed.
05
Timeline
DAY ONE
The executive order is signed. The 29 public-records requests are filed at the same time, so agencies can't coordinate with each other to avoid answering.
WITHIN 90 DAYS
The Extraction Audit begins.
WITHIN 180 DAYS
The Data Authority finishes its audit of existing data-sharing agreements with the University of Chicago and Northwestern.
FIRST TERM
Every technology contract that was awarded without competition and uses Chicago data is rebid.
06
Where it's worked
Chicago
The Inspector General found the city's financial office never calculated what the parking meters were worth if the city kept them. The IG put that value at about $2.13 billion, against the $1.157 billion Chicago was paid.
SOURCE: CITY OF CHICAGO OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL, JUNE 2, 2009 ↗
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Chicago Skyway
Chicago leased the Skyway for 99 years in 2005 for $1.83 billion. In 2016 the lease was sold to a group of Canadian pension funds for $2.8 billion.
SOURCE: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, JUNE 24, 2016 ↗
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Chicago today
In September 2026 the City Council approved selling the parking meter lease for $2.53 billion, more than twice what Chicago was paid in 2008, by a 46 to 3 vote.
SOURCE: WTTW, SEPTEMBER 29, 2026 ↗
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07
Sources
City of Chicago Office of Inspector General, June 2, 2009
Chicago Sun-Times, June 24, 2016
WTTW, September 29, 2026
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