Taxpayers last to pay if Olympics loses cash: Daley

Mayor Daley said Saturday he wants a deal in which private insurance money would be tapped before public money if an Olympic Games in Chicago suffered any losses.

Daley previously had said he wanted a provision ensuring that $2.5 billion in public and private insurance and guarantees would be exhausted before taxpayers would be on the hook.

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Mayor Richard Daley said he wants a deal that would use private insurance money before public money if an Olympic Games in Chicago suffered any economic losses.
(Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times)

But that $2.5 billion already includes a $500 million guarantee against operating losses, approved by the City Council.

Now Daley is saying that the city's portion of the $2.5 billion should be the last to be tapped.

Speaking at a library dedication, the mayor also said Saturday that the insurance policy may need to be larger -- perhaps $3.5 billion.

The mayor noted that he hadn't signed any agreement, and that everything had to go to the City Council.

On another matter, Daley declined to comment on a report by the city's inspector general that Homero Tristan, commissioner of the Department of Human Resources, lied during an investigation of City Hall hiring abuses.

Inspector General David Hoffman called Friday for Tristan's firing.

Daley called Tristan "dedicated," a "family man" and a "good civil servant," and said he had not read Hoffman's report.