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 Budapest is one of four candidate cities, along with Los Angeles,
Rome and Paris, still bidding to host the Olympics.
Hamburg withdrew its bid last week following a negative referendum
result which shocked German Olympic officials.
The Budapest referendum was proposed by an opposition Socialist
council member, Csaba Horvath, but was rejected by 16 votes to 14,
with two abstentions.
Officials said the Hungarian capital's bid would go ahead.
Before the vote, Horvath had told journalists: "Based on the current
proposal the Budapest Olympic Games cannot be supported because only
those who foot the bill (meaning taxpayers) can decide about its
fate."
Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos told the city council in a speech
before the vote that he doubted that a referendum was the right way
to decide on the bid.
"I absolutely respect referenda, and we will vote on the proposal,"
he said. "It is an open question, however, whether two years before
the hosts are chosen voters have enough information about hosting
the Olympic Games."
Budapest is led by Tarlos, an independent, but the ruling Fidesz
party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban supports him and holds a
comfortable majority in the city council.
Tarlos and Fidesz have expressed wholehearted support for the
Olympic bid several times.
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Budapest plans a Games budget of one trillion forints ($3.41
billion), of which 300 billion would be recouped by selling Olympic
assets afterwards, according to an execution study by
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Another two trillion forints would need to be spent on
infrastructure, PwC said, adding that more than half of the total
investment would be necessary regardless of the Olympics.
The total compares to a $4.7-billion budget for a Los Angeles Games
and operating budgets of some six billion euros ($6.36 billion) each
for Rome and Paris.
Budapest is the only one of the four remaining candidates never to
have hosted the Games.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is due to pick the 2024
host in 2017.
(Editing by Clare Fallon)
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