Bid claimed vote on Olympics unlikely

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/07/bid_claimed_vote_on_olympics_unlikely



HERE’S THE PITCH: Initial Boston 2024 proposals said it would need to raise an additional $471 million. Rendering Courtesy Boston 2024.

Bid claimed vote on Olympics unlikely
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Owen Boss

Boston 2024 removed assurances to the United States Olympic Committee that a forced referendum vote would be costly, difficult to arrange and easy to challenge from the publicly released version of its initial bid book.

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After months of keeping it under wraps, the Olympic organizing group released the unredacted version of the original bid book that was submitted to the USOC in December and won the Hub the chance to compete as host city for the Summer Games yesterday, prompting opponents to seize on apparent inconsistencies.

Among the most notable omissions, opponents say, was the section pertaining to a possible referendum vote, which organizers told the USOC was “technically possible” but “would likely not appear on the ballot before November 2018.”

They also pointed out that it would likely cost “well in excess of a million dollars” to get an initiative petition on the ballot and that referendum opponents would “have multiple opportunities to object and intervene throughout the process at every step,” excerpts that state Rep. Bill Straus called “particularly disappointing.”

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“well in excess of a million dollars”