San Jose Airport Director Gives Response to Airport Plan Question
Bill Sherry, the new director of the San Jose Mineta International Airport, has a reputation as a straight shooter. He was definitely doing just that at a recent San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce briefing on the new scaled-down airport plans that call for a $1.5 billion price tag instead of the original $4 billion, and a near-completion date in five years, not 12.
Rick DiNapoli, one of the business people in the audience, said that after listening to Sherry's presentation, he asked the airport director the following, somewhat loaded, question:
``So if I understand your presentation correctly, you are saying that a person, or a small group of people in the city, spent the last 10 years developing and then began to implement a $4 billion airport renovation plan a) without fully advising the city council, b) with the unanimous disapproval of the airlines, and c) at a cost that would increase the airlines' cost per passenger tenfold?''
DiNapoli says that Sherry responded, ``Yeah, that's pretty much it.''
A spokesman for Sherry said that while the DiNapoli question was not a direct quote, Sherry was in general agreement with what DiNapoli had asked him.
``We prefer to focus on moving forward with the plan to build a new airport rather than criticizing past actions,'' Sherry said through the spokesman.
As a San Jose City Council member, Dave Cortese has heard a lot of people's permit horror stories. He knows the nightmares are real because he's seen the storefronts abandoned by small business owners after their efforts to obtain permits dragged on too long.
A candidate for San Jose mayor, Cortese says he has an idea that will help. If he's elected, he'll declare a ``permit holiday'' and allow would-be entrepreneurs a chance to start a business without strangling on red tape.
The permitting process has already been streamlined for big companies in San Jose. It's mom-and-pop franchises that are being suffocated, city officials say.
Cortese says he's borrowing the notion from the city of Anaheim, which enjoyed a Home Improvement Holiday last year for homeowners and a New Business Tax Holiday this spring for business owners.
Letting folks off the hook for things like business licensing fees and application processing fees will generate far more revenue for San Jose in new business than it will cost, Cortese says.
We pity the person who has to write the acceptance speech, but the city of San Jose is in the running for Deal of the Year from Bond Buyer magazine.
The award -- arcane but highly coveted among the green eyeshade set -- honors the city, state or other governmental agency that comes up with the most innovative way to raise money through bonds. Two years ago California's Department of Water Resources won for finding a new way to get bond investors to reimburse its $11 billion in out-of-control energy expenses during the energy crisis. (Part of the novelty is that the state's millions of utility customers will be repaying investors in that gigantic bond deal for the next decade or so.)
San Jose and its Redevelopment Agency are up for this year's award for persuading a state agency to categorize tens of millions of dollars in bonds as tax-exempt rather than taxable -- an attractive feature for investors that allows the city to pay less in interest, and thus raise more money. San Jose noted that even though the bond proceeds were used to fund loans to private developers, ultimately the funds were being used for building affordable housing -- a public purpose that could justify tax-exemption.
The deal has already won San Jose one of five regional Deal of the Year citations. The city learns Dec. 6 if it won the nationwide honors.
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