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From Auditor of State Dave Yost...
“Essential Air
Service” to Ely, NV and Points in Between:
Why Part of the FAA is Shut Down For Now
August 5, 2011
You may have never heard of Ely, Nevada, population 4,255. But the
federal government writes a check for $3,700 every time one of its
residents steps on to a half-empty airplane at its tiny airport.
The federal subsidy for Ely – and other little airports like it – are
the argument behind the partial FAA shutdown. The Republicans and
Democrats are blaming each other, but perhaps this little argument is
part of the very large debate we need to have over the role of the
federal government. (New slogan for the federal government: “It’s
everywhere you want to be.”)
At issue is the “Essential Air Service” program, which by federal
government standards spends a relatively modest amount of money to make
sure small, sparsely populated areas have access to air service.
Ely is 237 miles from Salt Lake City, which has a major airport. That’s
a long half-day drive, even in the West – but living in the West means
anywhere is a long drive (although nowhere is just around the corner.)
Not all these EAS airports are distant – Athens, GA is a paltry 72
miles from Atlanta, but it’s on the list. Bradford, PA is only 77 miles
from Buffalo. You can find the whole list here. It’s hard to say these
towns lack essential air service. What they lack is convenient air
service.
You could drive clear across tiny New Hampshire in less than four
hours. But Lebanon, NH (population 13,151) is on the list of subsidized
airports – even though it’s only 75 miles from the Manchester airport.
The subsidies add up to $163 million. Ely takes home almost $2 million
of that, for 19 seats. You can find the other subsidy amounts here.
The other side of this argument is that transportation is a necessary
economic development tool, like roads, and the government has a role to
play. The problem is that air travel is more expensive than ground
transportation and requires economies of scale to work. It’s the same
reason small towns don’t have subways, or professional symphony
orchestras.
In an era where we’re borrowing more than 40 cents of every dollar we
spend, we need to have the debate about whether we should be funding
this program. Instead of blaming both houses of Congress for failing to
resolve the argument, we should be thanking the House Republicans for
standing firm and refusing to continue business as usual.
(Note: There is also an issue regarding unions in the background.
Perhaps that will be grist for another post.)
Read it at DaveYost.com
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