In our mailbox recently thudded a copy of the three-volume bid book submitted by New York City to the International Olympic Committee in its effort to win the Olympic Games in 2012. As we’ve said in the past, we think the city would be a terrific host to the games and we hope the effort succeeds. For one thing, New York would be a particularly fine place to receive athletes from Iran, Syria, and Cuba who have hopes of defecting to freedom. Backers of the games also make the plausible argument that the television revenue from the Olympics would fund billions of dollars of permanent infrastructure improvements in New York.

But amid the hundreds of pages of Olympics logistical matter presented in English and French and accompanied by colorful digital renderings, the point that particularly caught our eye had to do with taxes. “A number of different types of taxes exist in the United States, including income and franchise taxes, excise taxes, ad valorem (sales and use) taxes, property taxes, and employment taxes. Taxes may be levied at the national, state, and local levels,” the bid book helpfully explains. It says that the New York committee organizing the bid “does not expect that these taxes will have any impact on the IOC or athletes who are not residents of the United States.”

The bid book goes on to state that the “New York Committee for the Olympic Games,” which would organize the games, as a nonprofit, would be recognized “as an organization exempt from national income taxes, state corporation franchise taxes, and equivalent local income taxes.” Also exempt from national or state taxes, according to the Olympic bid book, are “broadcast rights payments,” “ticket sales,” and “reimbursements by Olympic participants for food, lodging, transportation, and similar expenses.”

We’re thrilled to know that the Olympics and the visiting athletes will be subjected to as light a tax burden as possible. But the fact that this information is included in the bid book is a signal that, as event organizers decide where to go, taxes are a factor. Mayor Bloomberg, who is a champion of the Olympic bid, has sometimes scoffed at this dynamic when it comes to say, residents or businesses deciding whether to stay in New York or leave. But we’re hopeful that, eventually, the logic of competing with other cities when it comes to low taxes will seep through to Mr. Bloomberg and his economic development officials, even on issues other than the Olympics. Then the tax burden could begin to be eased on regular New Yorkers, not only on international athletes and Olympic officials.