Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Williamson-Sodus Runway before resurfacing
Congressman John Murtha’s (D-PA) airport to nowhere isn’t the only small, little-used airport receiving millions in federal tax dollars. Of the more than $1 billion in stimulus funds given to the Federal Aviation Administration, $100 million has gone to airports that have less than one flight an hour and cater to recreational fliers, corporate jets or remote communities, such as the Alaskan villages of Ouzinkie, Akiachak and Fort Yukon, each of which is getting a $15 million stimulus grant.
One dubious allocation went to the Purdue University Airport ($1.45 million) to raise a fence and add a barrier to prevent animals from burrowing under the fence. According to an investigation by ProPublica, since 1990 only once has a burrowing animal, a skunk, interfered with a plane’s propeller.
Another $550,000 of stimulus money went to resurface a runway for the Williamson Flying Club, a private club east of Rochester, New York.
Meanwhile, some of the nation’s busiest metropolitan airports have yet to receive any stimulus dollars. These include Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (the busiest in the world) and McCarran International in Las Vegas. FAA officials explain the problem is with how the stimulus bill was crafted. Such funds are not to be used for any airport expansions or upgrades that have already received other government funding, either from the feds, states or local officials. For instance, McCarran is in the middle of a $3.5 billion capital improvement program, but stimulus funds can’t go towards completing the project.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Tiny Airports Take Off With Stimulus (by Michael Grabell, ProPublica)
Murtha’s Runway to Nowhere (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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