November's Olympics referendum ballot could include a one-paragraph preamble explaining conspicuous issues involved with the state's bid for the 1998 Winter Olympics, Utah House Speaker Nolan Karras said Wednesday.
Utah voters must approve the Olympics question in a Nov. 7 referendum before organizers can continue bidding for the Games or spend $56 million in public money budgeted for Olympic-facilities construction.Two weeks ago, draft language for the ballot asserting public money invested in the Games would be repaid drew fire from critics of the Olympics, who complained the language wrongly assumed repayment of public investment was guaranteed.
The critics said it is possible the Games could be an economic failure, providing little or no revenue to repay public investment.
Further, critics said the ballot language, which must be approved in a Sept. 19 special session, failed to guarantee that no events would be staged in the environmentally sensitive Big and Little Cottonwood canyons east of Salt Lake City.
Reaction to the sample ballot "helped us understand the sensitivity of the issues," said Karras, R-Roy, after meeting this week with backers of the Olympics to discuss the ballot issue.
"So what we're trying to do is come up with some sort of preamble that frames the issue," he added.
The preface would explain that Salt Lake City has secured the U.S. bid for the Games and that the Legislature authorized use of 1/32 cent of state and locally collected sales tax to pay for facilities for the Games, Karras said.
The preamble would also read that public investment would be repaid and that "there are no plans to do anything in the Cottonwood canyons," Karras said.
"We don't want the ballot language to be the issue, so we're trying hard to make the ballot issue informative and neutral," Karras said.
Although the vote will be technically non-binding, state and Salt Lake City officials as well as leaders of the Salt Lake Winter Games Organizing Committee have said they would abide by the voters' will.
If Utahns vote for the Olympics, organizers can proceed with their bid for the Games, which will be awarded in 1991 by the International Olympic Committee in Birmingham, England.
What's more, organizers could go forward with construction of three facilities to be paid for by public funds, including a bobsled-luge run, speed-skating rink and ski jump.
Under the "18-month rule" passed last year by the U.S. Olympic Committee, if the Olympics referendum passes organizers must begin construction of those facilities or have the mechanism in place to do so by December 1990.
Under a plan authorized last year by the Legislature, municipalities and the state will contribute 1/64 each of their sales tax dollars - generating $4 million annually - to the Utah Sports Authority, which will build and operate the facilities.