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The city’s immediate budget problems may be lessened, if not wiped out, by the deal to privatize Midway Airport that the Daley administration announced Tuesday. It will almost certainly win approval from the City Council—the quick dividends will be too much to pass up in this tumultuous economic climate, and aldermen won’t have much expertise except the administration’s to use for evaluating the deal.
Salaries, benefits, and pension obligations make up the biggest piece of the budget pie, by far; more than 80 percent of the city’s corporate fund, its primary pot of money, goes toward salaries and wages. Contracting with private companies for labor might save taxpayers some money, but competition for the deals (assuming competition would determine them as opposed to, say, nepotism or backroom handshakes) would drive down wages and benefits for those workers—it’s happened before—as well as people doing comparable work in the fully private sector.
