Just when we thought we might never need to hear about the city of Chicago’s abysmal parking meter deal again, it was the subject of a Tribune editorial this week.

The financial investors who fleeced the city with a 75-year lease that cost them only $1.15 billion are adding insult to injury. They’ve made so much money, it turns out, they’re selling the remaining 57 years on the contract, possibly for billions more.

Billions more? Really?

Perhaps not. After all, purchaser Stonepeak Partners and the consortium selling the contract, Chicago Parking Meters LLC, are not disclosing the price tag. But we got a pretty good hint earlier this year when Mayor Brandon Johnson revealed he decided not to make a bid on purchasing the lease — at an offer price of around $3 billion. Ultimately, Johnson decided the city could not afford the buyout. 

Why review this painful chain of events now? We’ve already learned so many hard lessons from the foolhardy parking lease. Haven’t we had enough?

Well, not really. It’s never too late to take lessons from the folly of taking major legislative action without a reliable assessment of what the bill might cost. The lesson is simple: Run the numbers, with care, before making an audacious fiscal bet.

It’s a lesson that might be applied, even now, to an unrelated piece of lawmaking that’s hurtling toward passage in the state legislature, which has been the........

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