In its pitch to host the 2024 Olympic Games, Los Angeles officials told the U.S. Olympic Committee that Gov. Jerry Brown had "expressed support for a state financial guarantee for the Games."
But, one day after that pitch booklet was made public, it is not clear if Brown actually made such a statement.
The line was deep in the 218-page "bid book" that Los Angeles Olympics organizers prepared for the U.S. Olympic Committee. The guarantee is mentioned in a section of the booklet where organizers detail widespread political support for the games, though no one from the governor's or mayor's office could say when Brown expressed such support. Neither office would confirm that a state financial guarantee meant that the state would cover cost overruns, should the games go over budget.
"The sentence you quote re: a 'state financial guarantee' is not accurate," Evan Westrup, a spokesman for Brown, wrote in an e-mail, while adding that the governor's administration has stated its "general support" for a bid.