Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Olympic Finance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Mitt Romney tells House he has narrowed Olympic budget gap; asks for short delay on state payment
Summary
Mitt Romney told the Utah House he inherited a $375 million shortfall at SLOC, said the committee cut $200 million and added over $100 million in sponsorships, and requested a 60‑day delay of a $58 million payment to the state while proposing an escrow arrangement and a possible $13 million sales/ticket tax allocation to cover municipal service costs.
Mitt Romney, speaking to the Utah House in Committee of the Whole, reported steps taken by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee to stabilize the 2002 Winter Olympics budget and asked the Legislature for guidance on cash‑flow and municipal service costs.
Romney said he discovered a $375,000,000 shortfall when he took the job and described a multi‑part response: an internal code of conduct, management changes, a $200,000,000 reduction in projected costs, and more than $100,000,000 in new sponsorships and private contributions. “I found to my dismay that an accurate reading of our budget found that we were $375,000,000 behind,” Romney told the committee. He added that SLOC had cut roughly $200,000,000 from the cost of the Olympic budget.
Romney outlined an immediate cash‑flow issue: the organizing committee would owe $58,000,000 to cities and towns before the committee received a larger payment (noted at $229,000,000) after the Games end. He said a bank willing to lend had insisted on an arrangement that would delay the committee’s payment to the state by 60 days while placing incoming revenues into escrow, and described an escrow-based approach to ensure the state’s payment would be protected.
On municipal costs for additional local services during the Games (extra police, EMS, traffic management), Romney asked whether the state could reverse about $13,000,000 in sales and ticket taxes to SLOC in exchange for SLOC accepting responsibility for those community service costs and for SLOC to continue aggressive cost‑reduction efforts. Romney framed the ask as a way both to avoid cities “jumping ahead” of state claims and to match SLOC’s payments with the committee’s expected receipts.
Romney concluded by stressing the importance of timely legislative direction to secure federal help and permit venue construction on schedule, and by emphasizing the volunteer and community elements of the Games the committee intends to preserve. The Committee of the Whole thanked Romney and dissolved.
