Comments on: Tiny Airports Get Big Cut of Stimulus Cash
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- Ask United or any of the others, how much fuel taxes they pay per gallon.Yet we the public provide all the services.
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- It's truly unfortunate in this country that the national reporting organizations spend so much effort to spin their articles in such a way as to divide opinions. Clearly, this story left out the other side completely. To all those who believe the premise that small airports are for a select few, should also consider the roads that lead to their own homes. I know at least some of my tax dollars are funding the upkeep of those roads, even though I will most likely never use them. That is part of what is called infrastruture. We ALL benefit, whether you see it or not. Shame on CBS for their self serving reporting. Wouldn't we all be better off if all sides of an issue were put on the table so informed decisions could be made?
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- Wow, I'm speechless at how poorly researched this story is. Many more intelligent people know how valuable these regional and rural airports are to their community from giving them public transportation to the other many purposes they serve such as medical, agricultural, various industrial uses such a pipeline/powerline inspection, flight training, surveying, business connectivity, firefighting, and the list goes on. Sad to see such extreme laziness on the behalf of this writer, this reporter ought to be fired.
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- It's amazing how many things the reporter left out of the story...which is common when laypeople write about complex technical subjects. (If they are ignorant about the aviation industry, think about how ignorant they are about the industry YOU'RE in.)
My final comment is this: The reporter, in his or her ignorance, failed to explain that many of these airports are FAA reliever airports. What that means is that they exist to provide private, corporate, air ambulance, etc. aircraft a place to land so they don't have to use major airline airports.
In other words, without these airports, your airline flight would be far more likely to be delayed. - Reply to this comment
- Let's call a spade a spade: The real complaint here is that urban taxpayers have to subsidize rural living. If we want to have that conversation as a country and whether that is in our country's best interests, then fine, let's do it. But as long as we ARE continuing to subsidize places like Alaska and upstate NY, supporting rural air infrastructure is a legitimate expense.
Remember: These airports are used by air ambulance, search and rescue, firefighting, small package express services, as well as local businesses. Would you want to live in a rural area without these services? I wouldn't. - Reply to this comment
- The intention of at least some of the stimulus was about generating immediate jobs. Airports met that requirement more than many other projects. That's because FAA requires airports to have multi-year master plans for improvements. If those improvements were scheduled anyway, and the engineering was already done, those were most eligible to begin construction fast and get people working. All the stimulus did was make it so these scheduled improvements could be made this year instead of in coming years. Not a big deal.
Let's also remember that the majority of Airport Improvement Program expenditures are paid from the Aviation Trust Fund, which is paid with airline ticket taxes and fuel taxes. Except that Congress raids the Trust Fund in order to fund spending on non-aviation projects (which can be done without making the deficit look bigger).
A case could be made that the stimulus funds are simply paying back all that money that was borrowed from the Trust Fund so that it could be used for the purpose intended. - Reply to this comment
- The Purdue University Airport is the second busiest airport in the state of Indiana with over 130,000 take offs and landings every year. The fact that one skunk was reported hit by a plane in 1996 does not reflect the countless coyote,deer,racoon etc that are removed every year by the Pest Management staff. CBS does not have all the facts and should before commenting on the issue.
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- Better in their rat hole than in the rat hole in washington DC.
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- This is called PORK my friends. Both parties are equally deep in the trough.
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- CBS's obviously didn't want the whole story get in the way of the biased story they wanted to tell.
The money received by the Williamson-Sodus Airport wasn't to give a flying club a place to fly. The flying club operates the airport for the public's use (a requirement for any FAA grant).
Small airports are a critical part of this nation's aviation infrastructure. The major airports that CBS thinks should get the money are great if you need to travel between major cities, but airlines only serve about 500 communities, and major airports constitute only a small number of those. For many communities, small airports and general aviation aircraft are their only connection to the nation's air transportation system and are critical to economic development. Access to a airport is a key factor for many companies when they are looking for place to locate a facility.
The story said that "...nobody would tell us how many unemployed workers, if any, were hired to pave the Flying Club's runway." It is clear by their saying "nobody would tell us" rather than "nobody could tell us" that they wanted to give the impression that people were hiding something. I doubt anyone they asked knew. I you higher a contractor to something, would you know if any unemployed workers were hired to do the work? Even if no unemployed were hired, that doesn't mean the project didn't prevent some workers from being laid off. - Reply to this comment
