Lawmakers OK $250 Million for S.F. Olympic Bid

The California Legislature hastily approved a measure Thursday to provide up to $250 million in public money to finance what was previously billed as an all-private bid to bring the 2012 Olympic Games to San Francisco.

Gov. Gray Davis has indicated that he will sign the bill, by Senate President Pro Tempore John Burton (D-San Francisco), to provide “last resort” backup financing.

Proponents said the state’s economy would benefit greatly from the Games, as it did during the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

San Francisco’s American competitors for the summer games--New York, Houston and Washington--have obtained similar pledges of assistance from state and local governments.

But unlike the other locales, which would use taxpayer money upfront to finance the games, the public assistance for San Francisco would come into play only after an expected $500-million reserve and an additional $250-million insurance policy were tapped out, according to the backers of the San Francisco bid.

“We don’t think it’s going to require any public money,” said Davis spokesman Russ Lopez. “We think this is something that will benefit not only San Francisco, but the whole state.”

The bill, which received little public scrutiny before Thursday’s votes, cleared both the Senate and Assembly in minutes with bipartisan support.

“It’s the kind of investment that will come back to California many times,” said Assemblyman Lou Papan (D-Millbrae).

But some Republican lawmakers criticized the fast-moving measure, arguing that the state, which is facing a $17.5-billion budget shortfall, should not tie the hands of future legislatures with a quarter-billion-dollar commitment.

“This is a loan guaranty. That’s exactly what this is,” said Sen. Ray Haynes (R-Riverside).

Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., criticized the measure, saying that it fits a larger trend by state officials to increase debt obligations with little thought of the consequences.

“It seems to me that given the budgetary crunch that this is not a top of the totem pole type of issue,” Coupal said. “Building infrastructure and taking care of the deficit should be higher priorities.”

The Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee, the group behind the San Francisco bid, had touted its effort as 100% privately funded. In fact, it promised the San Francisco Board of Supervisors last year that no taxpayer money would be used.

The group maintains that it still plans to orchestrate the Games without a dime of public money, but said that the U.S. Olympic Committee has said it will need some state backing as security.

“We really do stand behind our pledge” not to use taxpayer money, said the group’s president, Anne Cribbs, a former Olympic swimmer. “These are not going to be the Olympic Games on the backs of taxpayers. This is a privately funded bid based on the L.A. model.”

The four finalist cities are vying to become the country’s choice for the 2012 Olympics, a decision the U.S. Olympic Committee will make in November. The International Olympic Committee will choose the winning host city in 2005.

In what it calls a conservative estimate, the Bay Area group said that a 2012 San Francisco Olympics would generate $2.5 billion in revenues and cost only $2 billion, leaving $500 million to cover unanticipated costs. With UC Berkeley and Stanford in the vicinity, it said the Bay Area already has 80% of the facilities it needs to host the games, and could concentrate on improving existing stadiums and transportation systems.

“This legislation is a huge boost for our bid, and positions us as a front-runner for the U.S. candidacy, without changing the private nature of our bid,” said Tony Winnicker, the spokesman for the Bay Area group.

“It provides a tangible expression of government support that we intend to never use.”

Because the cities have to submit legal papers to the U.S. Olympic Committee on March 26 detailing their financial guarantees, state lawmakers said, they needed to move more quickly than usual.

“If we don’t do this, we’ll get knocked out” of the running, Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn (D-Saratoga) said during the lower house’s brief floor debate. The Assembly passed the measure on a 61-7 vote.

In the Senate, which like the Assembly was preparing to leave Thursday for its annual spring recess, Burton ran into some opposition from Republicans and briefly found himself a vote short of the 27 he needed for passage.

His colleagues were hardly shuddering with visions of former Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh, who once locked his fellow colleagues on the floor of the lower house for hours until they voted for a bill he wanted, but Burton then threatened, half-jokingly, to shutter the Senate and make lawmakers miss their planes out of town. He also spoke of dragging absentee Sen. Maurice K. Johannessen (R-Redding), who lives at least three hours north of Sacramento, back to the chamber to vote.

Within minutes, Sen. Bob Margett (R-Arcadia) stepped forward and offered his vote. The final tally was 28 to 5.

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Times staff writers Carl Ingram and Julie Tamaki contributed to this report.