The Illinois House lawmakers approved legislation Thursday guaranteeing the state would put up 250 million U.S. dollars if the 2016 summer Olympic Games comes to Chicago and loses money. According to reports reaching here from Illinois's Capital of Springfield, the measure, sent to the Senate on a 100-14 vote, comes as Chicago competes with Spain's Madrid, Brazil's Rio de Janeiro and Japan's Tokyo for Games that supporters hope could add 22.5 billion U.S. dollars to the state economy, including 315,000 jobs.
The International Olympic Committee's evaluation team is coming to Chicago in early April.
Backers of the legislation argue the state's financial risk is not very high because it would be unusual for an Olympics held in the United States to operate in the red. They said the guarantee is viewed as an important component to have in place by the time the Olympic committee plans to review Chicago in two weeks.
The Senate is expected to act as early as next week.