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Nutter Says City's Cost For Jay-Z Fest Will Be Revealed 'Very Shortly'

By Mike Dunn

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Nearly three weeks after Jay-Z's "Made in America" concert took over the Benjamin Franklin Parkway (see related stories), Mayor Nutter still has not released the cost to taxpayers of the two-day event.

For more than two weeks reporters have been asking the Nutter administration for the city's cost of the ticket-required "Made in America" festival, and for two weeks we've been told, "Not yet."

So today, we asked the mayor directly.

"We'll actually have all of the information that all of you have been asking about very shortly," he responded.

We asked for a time estimate.  His response: "Very shortly is, literally, very shortly."

The contract between the city and the event producer, Live Nation, says Live Nation should pick up all of the city's costs, which is at odds with earlier statements by the administration that the city would pay a nominal amount.

(Dunn:)  "Is it possible that the city's not going to pay anything?"

(Nutter:)  "When we get you all of the information, all of those questions and others will be answered."

A source tells KYW Newsradio that Live Nation has already reimbursed the city for $200,000 of the city's costs, and a final accounting is iminent.

Meanwhile, Councilman Jim Kenney is critical of the delay in the release of the cost figures.

"I suspect that there is nothing wrong with what these numbers are going to show," he said today.  "Problem is, the longer you wait the more people speculate that there is something wrong."

The concerts on Labor Day weekend brought 50,000 people to the Parkway for each of the two days.

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