Tonight's OD: Officials debate how to maximize Griffiss International Airport
The decision to move the county airport from the Whitestown airfield was, quite simply, wrong. It made absolutely no sense to think that a region of declining population could support a significantly larger facility . . . But the lure of available Federal grants to spend proved irresistible . . . which lead to a disastrous decision.
Now we are stuck subsidizing a facility that too big for our needs . . . the cost of which contributes to our high rate of taxation . . . which taxation deters businesses from setting up shop here without all kinds of government "incentives" . . . with the cost of the incentives further contributing to our high rate of taxation . . . As the 19th highest taxed county in the Nation based on the percent of home value paid in taxes, this will not end well for us.
The significant investments already made in the airport seem to become justification for exacting even more money from the taxpayers . . . to hopefully buy that one thing that will make everything work out alright.
Oneida County seems to be in a death spiral that it cannot get out of. Hopefully our officials will figure out a way to make the most out of their Big Mistake. . . before we crash.
1 comment:
The decsion to spend taxpayer dollars on moving an airport with no flights to another location to establish an international airport with no flights is but another costly mistake in the poorly planned, poorly implemented Griffiss redevelopment effort. It, once again, demonstrated and continues to demonstrate the folly of the carrot of federal and state dollars driving local decsion making. We now have a costly white elephant that non politician has the guts to eliminate. The issue is also yet another example of the political choke hold the Rome lobby has had on the entire area. Until county political control is wrestled away from the entrentched establishment nothing will be reversed and improved.It is time for major change and surgery on the county level.
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