City parking tickets tab now up to $50 million

The latest bill, sent May 17 by Chicago Parking Meters LLC, demands $22 million to cover a year's worth of free parking for vehicles that displayed disabled placards or license plates. The amount is part of a nearly $50 million tab that Mayor Rahm Emanuel so far has refused to pay.
Emanuel is the first of many mayors who will have to live with the meter contract that then-Mayor Richard Daley put in place during his final term. In late 2008, Daley got aldermen to quickly approve a 75-year parking meter contract in return for a one-time payment of $1.15 billion.
Daley and aldermen then spent nearly all of the money to keep the cash-strapped city afloat. By the time Emanuel took over last year, only $125 million of the lease payment remained.
The contract also includes clauses that allows the company to charge the city for revenue it did not receive because metered spaces generated less annual revenue than promised
Last year, the company hit the city with a $13.6 million bill for money it says was lost to vehicles with disabled placards and license plates, by the company's calculations.
The matter is in binding arbitration.