LOST REVENUE

The following is from the FAA rule book, page 22-19, if anyone wants to look it up.

“The nonaviation interest of the sponsor or the local community does not constitute an airport benefit that can be considered in justifying a release and disposal.”

What does this mean?  It means that you cannot close an airport to build a shopping center, no matter what the citizens of the community believe or want.  The citizens’ tax money does not fund the AIP, airport users do.  If you live in St. Clair and don’t fly, you do not support the system.

But wait, isn’t the city subsidizing the airport? 

It is now, and whose fault is that?  The users don’t run it.  The city council operates the airport, and it is the fault of the city council that the taxpayers of St. Clair have to subsidize the airport.

There are many solutions to the St. Clair Airport problem, many of which do not include closing it. 

There is only one solution that interest Ron Blum, and that is closure. 

Look at it in another way, this has been going on for eight years or so and looks like it will go one for many, many more.  Ron Blum told everyone the city will make $2,000,000 a year from a shopping center.  The City has lost $16,000,000 in sales tax dollars trying to close the airport for the nonaviation interest of the sponsor or the local community, and will lose another 30 or 40 million trying to do what Ron Blum wants.

 It would cost the City $2,000,000 to build another airport, and if the city would have chosen the correct way of doing this, in two years from now, the new airport would open and Ron Blum could close the old one, or build his shopping center, or whatever he has promised.

Here’s the catch, why would someone look at these numbers and not jump at the chance to build a new airport in the center of Franklin County, and build a development around it.  The $2,000,000 is nothing compared to the 30 or 40 million the city is going to lose trying to do the impossible. And now the city is looking at spending a lot more money to make the airport compliant.  The catch is that there is no $2,000,000 a year in sales tax, never was, and never will be.  That is why Ron Blum will not take the easy solution to this problem.  If Ron Blum would have read the rule book before he spouted off about the $2,000,000 a year shopping center, he would not be in the situation he is in now.  He can’t come up with another reason in the middle of the game. 

A segment on CBS Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago, reported that 50% of the retail shopping malls in this country will close in the next ten years.  No One in their right mind believes that there is going to be a Chesterfield like Mall in St. Clair, or that there ever was.