BITCHIN’
The feds, control, and future $$$
By Paul Bowers
September 2001
To say that we are seeing mixed signals
coming out of Washington regarding our nation’s airports is quite
the understatement.
In the wake of the hand’s-off attitude
shown with the closing of Richards-Gebaur Airport in Kansas City and the
uneven enforcement of noise standards in Naples, one senses that individual
locales are free to work things out amongst themselves.
Now come proposals from Congress that would
put the federal government squarely back in control of local airport decisionmaking.
An amendment to a national transportation
spending bill offered by Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL) would force Chicago
to work on its congestion problem via continuing operations of Meigs Field
as well as the planning of a third airport.
Another bill introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller
(D-WV) would require any major airport identified as causing significant
delays to the national system to begin pouring concrete within five years
after being so cited or risk losing federal funds.
And, a House bill introduced by William
Lipinski (D-IL) would prohibit a state, local, or political authority
from requiring a certificate for approval before construction of an airport
development project.
What are the chances of these becoming law?
Not many. True to his Republican roots, President Bush will not want to
become tangled into areas that are considered states’ rights. I fear
that we are destined to continue along our tortured path of convoluted,
slow decisionmaking with regard to regional airport growth.
Speaking of painful growth ... and lessons not learned.
Have you heard much recently about aviation’s
plans to find the successor to AIR-21? Neither have I.
Yet, our brethren in public transportation
have undertaken a massive campaign to influence a program to replace their
funding source (TEA-21), which just happens to expire at the same time
as AIR-21.
The Public Transportation Part-nership for
Tomorrow (PT)2, introduced by the American Public Trans-portation System,
is a nationwide education and outreach initiative designed to build support
for public transportation among the public, and local, state, and federal
officials. The goal: to positively impact investment and policy decisions
(translation: to secure their share of federal dollars).
They are collecting millions of dollars
from transit systems and their suppliers over a five-year period to help
fund this massive PR effort.
The clock is ticking and AIR-21 will be
history before we know it. Bud Schuster has retired; he can’t bail
us out again.
