Nice catch, it's actually an ~13.5% annualized rate of return when taking into account the cash flows (assuming annual payments distributed evenly across the contract life, I'm sure you could refine it further).
It's still unclear that this is a bad deal financially. What percentage of that return is going to the vendor's costs? What costs would the city incur if they tried to do it themselves? What were the city's other options in raising cash?
If there was a cheaper muni float option on the table and Daley went with this deal instead, then that feels worth investigating to see whose pockets got lined. Otherwise, it's probably not as bad of a deal as the headlines make it seem.
It's still unclear that this is a bad deal financially. What percentage of that return is going to the vendor's costs? What costs would the city incur if they tried to do it themselves? What were the city's other options in raising cash?
If there was a cheaper muni float option on the table and Daley went with this deal instead, then that feels worth investigating to see whose pockets got lined. Otherwise, it's probably not as bad of a deal as the headlines make it seem.