Saturday, March 06, 1999

Bill could bring airport extra $6 million

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Aim: More improvements, fewer delays

BY TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        Passengers at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport could face fewer delays if Congress passes a proposed $89 billion federal aviation bill, airport officials said Friday.

        Greater Cincinnati's airport would be allotted nearly $9.3 million in federal money annually,three times the $3.1 million it's entitled to now.

        More importantly, the bill also could make more money available for airports to pay for improvement projects such as new runways.

        “We are looking at a lot of delays, and the delays are getting worse and worse,” airport spokesman Ted Bushelman said. “The money could help us pay for a new runway.”

        A study done last year, by PB Aviation Inc. of Cincinnati for the Federal Aviation Administration, showed the average aircraft delay would reach 12 minutes by 2003 and 20 minutes by 2006 without a third north-south runway.

        Similar problems are being seen nationwide. The bill introduced Wednesday aims to make flying safer, reduce delays, increase competition at airports, and provide more services for small cities.

        It would triple allotments at most airports, including Dayton, Columbus, Lexington and Indianapolis, and allow them to build more terminals and gates

        and to attract more airlines and passengers. It would double the federal government's annual aviation spending over the next five years to $20.3 billion.

        “The money is there to do the job,” said the House sponsor of the bill, Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

        The additional $6 million for Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International would help in paying for terminal and gate improvements and noise programs at the airport. It spends roughly $65 million to $70 million annually on improvements, airport director of finance Sheila Hammons said.

        Mr. Shuster's bill would declare that all aviation taxes go strictly to aviation purposes, essentially roping off the Aviation Trust Fund from being used for other government purposes, as it is now. Most of the money in the fund — which took in $8.1 billion last year — comes from an 8 percent tax on airline tickets.

        “Taxpayers are being cheated because only a portion of the taxes going into the trust fund is invested in aviation infrastructure,” he said.

        Mr. Shuster dubbed his bill the Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st century, or AIR-21. Last year he pushed through Congress the largest highway bill in history, dubbed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, or TEA-21. In that bill, as he aims to do in AIR-21, Mr. Shuster succeeded in declaring the Highway Trust Fund “off budget,” limiting it to highway spending pur poses only.

        “We are in an undeclared kind of war, a battle to take the Aviation Trust Fund off budget,” said Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., the top Democrat on the transportation committee.

        Mr. Shuster plans to bring the bill up for a vote in his committee Thursday. With Mr. Oberstar supporting it, as well as the top Republican and Democrat on the panel's aviation subcommittee, it is certain to pass.

        U.S. Rep. Ken Lucas, D-Richwood, said the airport is vital to Northern Kentucky's economic development. He supports efforts to set aside portions of the trust fund to aviation infrastructure.

        “That's just honest accounting,” he said.

       

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