The Daley administration and the Chicago's Olympic bid committee went into damage control mode last week after the mayor flip-flopped and signaled to the International Olympic Committee that Chicago taxpayers will cover costs overrun associated with the 2016 Summer Games. In response to the blowback from aldermen and editorial writers, Daley denied that taxpayers will ultimately be liable for anything above the $500 million guarantee already approved by the City Council in 2007. Meanwhile, Chicago 2016 sports and operations director Doug Arnot tried to diffuse the situation by simply dismissing the possibility of cost overruns on Olympic-related projects, telling the Sun-Times:

"The places where the games have gone over budget . . . has been in the mega-construction projects associated with the games. London is rebuilding all of the East End" of the city, Arnot said.

"We don't have mega-construction projects associated with this plan," he said.

It's somewhat difficult to define a "mega-construction project" in the context of the Olympics, particularly when foreign currencies are involved.  So rather than cite the examples of London's 2012 Olympic Stadium (the cost of which has doubled from £282 million to £547 million) or Vancouver's 2010 Olympic Village (where "some citizens feel duped" by the growing pricetag), let's look instead at the three most recent major capital projects taken on by Daley.  We think his adminstration's track record speaks for itself:

O'Hare Expansion: The $15 billion project cost -- which came in nearly five times higher than the initial estimate of $3.6 billion -- drew further scrutiny when it political insider Chris Kelly was indicted for allegedly paying off a consultant in exchange for $8.5 million worth of inflated contracts. Last year, American and United airlines backed out of helping to pay for the expansion, explaining to the Federal Aviation Administration that the city's plans were “ill-conceived," adding: “Unfortunately, the city did not accept the more modest and financially prudent approach.”

Block 37 Superstation: After spending $320 million on a plan initally estimated to cost $213 million, taxpayers continue to dump money into this stalled project in the Loop, which aimed to create a central hub for express trains to O'Hare and Midway airports. As Crain's reported last summer, a dearth of private investment (and a $1.5 billion overall shortfall) forced the CTA to shelve the plans. Despite being touted as a public/private partnership, taxpayers covered a $130 million shortfall last year alone. Equally troubling: When the city asked for an additional $20 million to cover cost overruns last June, officials refused to even answer questions about the problems plaguing the site.

Millennium Park: Proposed as a $150 million project with no public financing, Millennium Park came in $350 million over budget and was completed four years behind schedule. The now-defunct Neighborhood Capital Budget Group highlighted the bill of goods sold to the public on a project fraught with "poor planning, design problems and cronyism [that] led to skyrocketing costs." In the end, taxpayers paid $270 million for the park. Private donors came up with less than half.

The Community Media Workshop's Curtis Black has more.