November 11, 2004
NYC to be on hook for Olympic overruns?
New York city council speaker Giff Miller - a likely mayoral candidate in 2005 - has largely kept a low profile on the city's Jets stadium plan, aside from a few snarky remarks about the project's hazy financing scheme at a council hearing back in June. This week, however, he's taken on Mayor Michael Bloomberg over one aspect of the plan: The signing of an as-yet-unreleased agreement with the International Olympic Committee that, Miller charges, could leave the city on the hook for billions in cost overruns.
As first reported by newyorkgames.org last month, Olympic host cities are typically required to assume all responsibility for the cost of staging the games, and to indemnify the IOC from any additional expenses. While the state legislature approved a $250 million Olympic slush fund in 2001, there are fears that that could quickly run dry, especially considering that this summer's Athens games went at least $3 billion over budget.
Though Bloomberg is set to deliver a signed agreement to the IOC by next Monday, so far it's been entirely negotiated in secret, which Miller charges is illegal. "If some or all of the financial burden is going to be put on the city, that needs an open public review in front of the cityís elected legislature," Miller spokesman Steve Sigmund told the New York Observer's Blair Golson. To which could be added: Yeah, that and a lot of other things.
