City Journal has an article by Steve Malanga that makes a good sequel to last Friday's post on the wasteful spending at the County Airport.
Titled Airfields of Dreams, the subtitle, "If you build it, they won't come" explains why this should be made required reading for our County Executive and every County Legislator.
Public officials and local business leaders in areas looking to stimulate growth argue that they need to invest in airports, just as Atlanta and Dallas have. These officials are willing to risk millions of taxpayer dollars on a bet that it’s an airport that drives a local economy, not an energized economy that drives airport expansion. The results are empty terminals and gates, unused runways, and even flight-free airports. In China, the government has swiftly constructed entire new cities that so far remain eerily without residents. America is building a network of ghost airports every bit as strange.
8 comments:
And one wonders why we have $trillion national deficits and local taxes that increase every year with no end in sight? Our elected representatives gamble with, and waste our money, as they lock in their life time pensions and benefits. But, after all is said and done, we do elect the very people who are leading our decline.
Give it up Picente. Utica/Rome damn sure isn't Atlanta or Dallas. Oneida County would have been better off leaving the county airport in Oriskany until such a time as the economy and growth at Griffiss made it practical for passenger service to return to the area. Obviously all efforts so far and all money spent so far have been wasted.
As long as the federal and state monies are there along with a dose of local cash, why would anyone think Picente would, "give it up?" To do so would be an admission that the idea was a bad one from the start. Just once wouldn't you love to see an elected official say, " we tried it did not work and we will stop wasting taxpayer money." But that would take guts, honesty and fortitude.
Only in the movies would crowds show up in a cornfield for either a ballpark or an airport. Airports don't drive an economy. They serve an economy that already exists. They're part of the infrastructure, not a silver bullet. Your politicians either don't think very clearly or they are desperate.
Maybe both.
Dave, the answer is that the easy money drives the bad decisions. The creation of the Griffiss International Airport and the move to it was almost totally funded by the Federal taxpayer. The locals viewed this as a gift that would keep on giving. And, it has. Check Hanna announcements on more tax dollars being pumped in. They occassional drop in the bucket of a million here and a million there of local money doesn't seem to upset anyone. With this federal largess, the locals can hire people for new jobs, let contacts to political donators, keep hiring favorite consultants who also come up with campaign cash and make a lot of nice sounding announcements. They are thinking very clearly. It is the voter who is truly lost to the art of thinking and understanding. We keep electing the politicians who continue to pick our own pockets. Who is desperate? It surely is no guys and gals who time and time again get elected. They are the brilliant ones; we are the dopes.
Anon:
Alas, your analysis is spot on. Woe to us. I keep hoping we'll get smarter, but we never do.
The former county airport was deliberately sacrificed for the benefit of the special and financial interests of the GLDC and the 394HRC, and at great cost to the taxpayers of Oneida County. The relocation of the former county airport necessitated spending tens of millions of dollars to rehabilitate buildings and hangars, and repair and upgrade the airfield infrastructure, plus the costs to construct new t-hangars and to operate and maintain an airport much larger than the former. The public was told that all of this expense was justified for the greater economic development benefits to be derived from the airport at Griffiss, which was actually a smokescreen to hide the true motive and beneficiaries.
Yes, but we have an "international airport" for all to marvel at. Trouble is nobody uses it and nobody even sees it. But, we keep on spending on it.
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