Welcome to Newswire — your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what action we can take to make our city great, featuring public meeting coverage by City Bureau’s Documenters.
Quote/Term of the Week
City-owned debt / noun
Money that individual residents or employees owe directly to a municipality.
Such debt can include vehicular debt (unpaid speeding, red-light camera or parking tickets), utility bills (water, sanitation or sewage bills), administrative hearings and emergency medical and ambulance bills.
CORRECTION: In last week’s Newswire, we incorrectly reported that private equity firm Stonepeak Partners won the Chicago Parking Meters with a bid of $250 billion. The correct bid is $2.5 billion (don’t forget the decimals, kids!).
Chicago’s debt sale and what it means for YOU
Chicago is tapping Bank of America to carry out its unprecedented sale of city-owned debt.
The deal is one step forward in the city’s plan to sell at least $1 billion worth of vehicular debt such as unpaid parking, speeding and red-light camera tickets, in hopes of earning no less than $89.6 million. That’s roughly 9 cents on the dollar.
Officials have been working toward the debt sale since the City Council approved the plan in December. Over Mayor Brandon Johnson’s objections, a coalition of alders added the debt sale proposal to this year’s budget as a way to prop up the city’s struggling finances.
Sold debt ineligible for city-run relief
There are still a lot of unknowns about the process but one thing is clear: City-run relief programs will not apply to sold debt, officials told City Bureau.
That means if you owe debt to the city, and they sell it to a private collector, you would no longer qualify for programs such as Clear Path Relief or Fresh Start Debt Relief since you would owe that debt somewhere else.
We don’t know exactly whose debt will be included in the sale and we won’t know more details until a company actually buys the debt — that’s part of Bank of America’s job. A big unknown is what methods a company might use to collect on what you owe, which could involve contacting you by phone, mail and at work; contacting other people to find you; or sending your debt to credit bureaus.
Collectors can also sue you, which can result in a debt judgment. That opens the door to possibly garnishing your paychecks or bank accounts, and seizing and selling personal property and real estate, according to Illinois Legal Aid.
What you can do:
We want to hear from you: If you have unpaid parking, red-light or traffic tickets, have ever had your car booted or are unsure whether you owe money to the city, we want to hear about your experiences and how they affect you. Contact us at civicinfo@citybureau.org to share your story with us.
Content in this Newswire is from Moving forward with debt sale, Chicago taps Bank of America as facilitator by Sophia Kalakailo, City Bureau’s Community Accountability Reporter. Stay tuned for more of our reporting on this and more resources about navigating debt at citybureau.org/news.
A version of this story was first published in the July 8, 2026 issue of the Newswire, an email newsletter that is your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what we can do to make our city great. You can sign up for the weekly newsletter here.
Have thoughts on what you'd like to see in this feature? Email Civic Editor Dawn Rhodes at dawn@citybureau.org.