The Public Cost Of A Chicago Olympics
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Chicago Reader:
The big news from Tuesday's mayoral budget hearing is that the Olympics are back to being free.
That's right: building, staging, and removing the venues for the 2016 Olympic Games won't cost the public a dime; it will all somehow or other pay for itself.
I know this because I heard it from Mayor Daley himself, who was leading his annual budget hearing at the Falconer School on the northwest side.
In response to comments from one concerned resident, Daley said there will be "no public money for the Olympics. There will not be any money used for the Olympics."
Whew, what a relief. Silly me, I'd thought we were on the hook for at least $500 million ever since last year, when Daley, at the urging of the United States Olympic Committee, got the City Council to, you know, authorize up to $500 million for the games. I believe the USOC called it putting some governmental "skin in the game."
First Posted: 08-21-08 01:09 PM | Updated: 09-21-08 05:12 AM