8/11/2019 Airport Funds: The Feds Step In | Vanguard Press | June 24, 1984

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- M a y o r BernardSanders' plan touse surp lus a irpor tr ev e n u e s f o r o t h e r

ci ty purposes came under heavy fire during the June 18alderm anic m eeting. By

week's end. after W ednesday's no-go meeting with fed-eral aviation officials, it lookedlike the plan would never fly.

Instead, the mayor may ptfor another route: selling the

a ir p o r t . " W h a t s a n e business-I11t l l1 ," S a n d e r s a s k e d Wednes-day, "would retain an assetworth. perhaps, $10 million,assume all the liabilities as-sociated w i th th a t investment i fthe business goes bad, but.. .not be able ever to draw a nick-el of profit-or repayment of past debt?"

Sanders and his aldermanic

allies argued during the lastt w o B o a r d meetings t ha t t ax -p a y er s d e s e rv e t o r ec o u p citym o n ey p u t i nt o t he ai rp o r t

since 1929-an estimated $3mil l ion in tax subs id ies .

Butthe plan's path has beenas bumpy as Runway 153 atBurlington International. Re-p ai r s o n th at an d o th er run-ways were schedul d to begin

M onday. Yet Federal Avia-tion Administration lFAAl oft',cialsfroze a$1 .7 m 1 l\ion gran tafterelaiming the Sanders ad-ministration's p lan was out ofline with a 1982 FAA law

limiting the use of airportr ev e n u e s .

" Th e m ay o r h as h is inter-

8/11/2019 Airport Funds: The Feds Step In | Vanguard Press | June 24, 1984

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S C I I P I

AII?PORT FI'NnS:

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preach." L ev in in t ro d u c e d athree-part program aimed at"merely trying to get us back

on the straight and narrow."He sa id be fore Monday 's meet-ing that the previous weekSanders had "at best grosslyund erstated ... and at w orstdece ived the Board" in present-ing the relative risks of thes u rp lu s r ev en u es p l an .

O t h e r o p p o s i t i o n a l d e r m e nagreed that Sanders had notaccurately presented the LaU-tious position stated by thec i t y attorney i n a D e c e m b e r

letter sent to the mayor andthe Airport Commissioners.The letter warned that Sand-ers' plan may caose the FAAto withdraw funds."You o w e th is b o ard an

ap o lo g y f o r v er y , v er y m i s lead -

in g in fo rm a tio n .' M a uric e M a -honey ID-Ward J) told themayor.

(0 Sanders ' corner wereWard 3 's progressive Alder-men Peter l.ackowski an dGary DeCarolis, who urgedthe board to keep backing the

plan because it would help int h e m a y o r 's n e g o t iat io n s w i t hthe FAA. "This is a heck of at im e t o lo s e OUf n e r v e," s a i dLackowski. "We have a great

deal to lose if we back off."The administration and its

supporters referred to whatis r ep o r ted l y a s i m i lar s i tu a -t i on i n M ain e , w h er e t h e c i ty ' su s e o f a i r po r t r ev en u es ap -parently d i d n ' t jeopardize a i r -

p o r t e x p a n s i o n plans.Only the first part of Levin's

plan came to pass: the Boardvoted along straight partisanl in e s t o r es c i n d i ts p r ev i o u sendorsement. The two other

components called for restat-ing the city's relationship tothe airport, such that it couldearn s om e a irpo r t -re la ted rev -enues and cover the facility'scapital needs without threat-ening FAA funds, Levin said.

Its specifics included billingthe airport for city-providedserv i ces an d c o l l e c t i n g s o m etaxes paid by rental car corn-

parries based at the airport.The two camps differed on

the meaning of the rescindedendorsement. Sanders said

=

A irport C(JlIIlJIis ..~i(JI1I'" Gal)'

Barnes c o -t! I 's if (J /fd (1 p i au II}

contradict Sandors' I / O p t , /01'airport profils fo r city nse.

Monday lhat it meant nothing.But Levin disagreed, sayingthe action may have kept themayorfrQIJi1~ngaging the FAAi n a l aWSUIt.

The airport debate Mondayspilled into other fiscal areas.Alderman Ted Riehle (R-Ward6) later said that a hard line

against the FAA on airportrevenues could affect other federal funding projects, in-cluding requests for $23 mil-lion in UDAG grants for thewaterfront .

"If there 's a nip of the coin

and Burlington has made itselfo b n o x i o u s . w e w o n ' t g e t them o n e y ," h e s a id .

A nd throughout Monday'sm e e t i n g . S a n d e r s r e t u r n e d t owhat he said he believed was

the larger issue: finding alter-natives to property tax hikes.Q u e s t i o n s concern ing th ecity 's dependence on that taxare likely to become more

p r o m in en t w h en t h e c i ty b u d -gel comes lip for a vote at

Monday's meeting. A finalpublic meeting of the FinanceCommitee on Wednesday hadcity officials repeatedly ex-plaining that there was lessm o n e y t han g o o d w a y s t ospend it.

Stephen Ward