President Donald Trump has compared landing at Los Angeles International and other U.S. airports to arriving in a third-world country. But a provision in the tax bill passed by the House of Representatives would eliminate a tool central to his $1 trillion pledge to upgrade airports and other public works.
The House measure would eliminate a form of tax-exempt debt called private-activity bonds. That would leave Los Angeles World Airports, which runs LAX, with the choice of scaling back projects in its $14 billion modernization plan or finding $500 million in new revenue because of higher borrowing costs, Chief Financial Officer Ryan Yakubik said in a interview.
“Certainly, it had been made clear that infrastructure was a great priority, and that finding ways to do that was important,” Yakubik said. “This doesn’t seem pointed in that direction.”