Paper Asks “Why Should Anyone Believe” Mayor and 2016 Committee
The editorial in the June 25 edition of the Chicago Journal minces no words on the Mayor’s pledge to write a blank check to the IOC…
The Daley Administration and its lackeys in the local Olympic organizing committee have repeatedly promised that no public money would be spent putting on a 2016 Olympiad here.
“Taxpayer money is not being used for the games,” John Murray, chief of bid operations for Chicago 2016, told us last year.
Well, no. That hasn’t been true for a while now. Shame on anyone for pretending otherwise.
Even before the mayor promised International Olympic Committee bigwigs that Chicago would sign the standard IOC contract, putting taxpayer money on the line for all cost overruns, the city council spent $86 million to buy the Michael Reese site for an Olympic Village and offered up $500 million in guarantees for operating overruns. TIF bucks are on the plate, too.
Why should anyone believe anything the mayor and Chicago 2016 have to say about the Olympics? They’re incapable of honestly laying out all the true costs and arguing for the project on its merits. They obfuscate and dissemble. They lie.
We agree. No Games Chicago has been saying this all along. “They play and we’ll pay” – that’s what the games are all about. We could’ve told the Aldermen that it’s all or nothing with the IOC. They hold all the cards and we put in all the chips. TELL YOUR ALDERMAN – ‘NO OLYMPICS! NO BLANK CHECK!” **CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR ALDERMAN**
If insurance policies are to be the defense against cost overruns, let’s do it right.Instead of paltry policies,get ones that cover losses of 20 0r even 50 billion dollars.Construction companies,construction unions,the news media and democrats could pay the hefty premiums,since they all benefit from an Olympics,on budget or not.