Chicago yet to recover 1.74 million dollars for Obama's victory bash

Chicago, Feb. 21 (ANI): Chicago has yet to recover the 1.74 million dollars that it spent on President Obama's victory celebration at Grant Park.

Already, there is a 50.5 million dollars budget deficit that may lead to more layoffs and union concessions.

"The Democratic National Committee has not yet paid us. We're reaching out to them this week," Peter Scales, a spokesman for the city's Office of Budget and Management, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

The city spent a million dollars on police protection for the rally. The Office of Emergency Management and Communications spent over 120,000 dollars in expenses, including 19,500 dollars paid to police official Neil Sullivan to quarterback election night logistics.

In October, Chicago Mayor Daley had assured that the Obama-led DNC campaign would reimburse every penny spent on the rally.

"We have a financial crisis. The City of Chicago could not afford two million dollars on this because we're gonna be laying off people, cutting back. That [cost] would really be unfortunate. It's a huge cost to the City of Chicago. This is not a presidential visit. This is a political event, and they've agreed to pay for all those services," he said.

Stacie Paxton, a Democratic spokeswoman tried to justify the reimbursement delay.

"We are still looking at various costs and bills," Paxton said without commenting on whether parts of the bill were disputed.

Earlier, Paxton had confirmed then that the rally was a "DNC-sponsored event" and that the party was discussing the itemized bill with the city. (ANI)