Perspective: Overlooking airport details

While employees scrounge to save a few dollars here and there in the St. Petersburg city budget, City Council member John Bryan is ready to peel off $4.2-million of taxpayer money to fix up Albert Whitted Airport for a handful of pilots. That's the St. Petersburg City Council: Penny-wise but pound-foolish.

During a briefing on the airport master plan Thursday, Bryan didn't want to wait for the details. He's ready to ask for $12.4-million in state and federal grants and to promise $4.2-million in city money to build a new terminal and lengthen runways. And how will the city raise the $4.2-million? Good question.

The city isn't very good at keeping track of the money it spends on Albert Whitted. It borrowed $6.9-million in 1997 to do a number of airport projects, including building a new terminal. By the time the money ran out, they hadn't gotten to the terminal.

But what the heck. Bryan is ready to spend millions more of taxpayer dollars to give it another shot. Who knows? Maybe this time the city will actually build a new terminal. Of course, neither Bryan nor any of the other council members asked this question: Does the airport need a new terminal?

Bryan seems to think that a new terminal will turn the airport into a cash cow for the city. So far, Albert Whitted has looked more like rump roast. For all the millions of dollars the city has sunk in the facility, the airport hasn't returned one penny to repay the debt. It lost money on its operation two out of the last three years. Rather than being a business opportunity, a new terminal is more likely to become a taxpayer-financed clubhouse for a few dozen pilots.

Bryan and most of the other council members seem to have forgotten that Mayor Rick Baker has asked the city's economic development staff to consider other uses for the land Albert Whitted sits on and report back to the council. If council members were responsible, they would listen to that presentation before making any commitments to the airport.

It seems pretty obvious that some council members have already made up their minds about the airport. No matter that it wastes tax dollars, fails to carry its own weight and ties up some of the city's most valuable land. Wouldn't it make more sense to use that land to expand the city's waterfront park land, help the University of South Florida's St. Petersburg campus grow, enhance the city port and get a return on the taxpayer's dollar?

If Bryan and the others push forward with a half-baked airport expansion plan, it would tie the land up for the next 20 years. That certainly sounds like a decision that should be made only after council members have all the facts.

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