Commentary: Board wrong to push cost of airport improvements onto taxpayers

Dear Mayor Bob Crowell,

Recently, I expressed my concern regarding the Consent Agenda item seeking approval for stimulus funds in the amount of $9.6 million to the Carson City Airport.

Airport Improvement Program funds were set aside from the Federal Aviation Administration, which are derived from ticket taxes on airline travelers, not from general taxpayers.

I voiced my concerns regarding this shifting of financial burden from real revenue (AIP) source that affected only users of airports to stimulus funds affecting all taxpayers.

Your actions as a board created no jobs other than those that would have been created under the original AIP grant funding. Job creation was the intent of the stimulus fund scheme in the first place. Your actions as a board defeated that purpose.

The Carson City Airport Authority consistently maintains that they have the funds to match the AIP grant. This source of funding would have put the onus on the back of aviation users and not the general population of taxpayers. In shifting this burden, you have increased the very real potential of inflation, which was not of real necessity but rather of myopia.

Placing this item on a Consent Agenda was also inappropriate for such an important decision to our community and its future.

The taxpayers of Carson City have not expressed their desire in the past to financially support the airport, and therefore the authority's previous request to become a taxing authority was denied on the basis that the public would not support such a move, and politically it would be detrimental to the airport to put the request on the ballot.

You have now made the decision to force the American public to share in the monetary responsibility of the Carson City Airport without benefit of their input. This back-door method of doing the people's work should not be tolerated and should not be a point of pride for your board or our community.

I am extremely concerned by the careless actions of your board, a body that showed disregard for the protection of the taxpaying citizens. Your actions will affect the entire country by the acceptance of money that essentially does not exist.

If the Carson City Board of Supervisors felt they had to take advantage of this new revenue source, perhaps ongoing unfinished projects in the community should have been considered. I am speaking of projects that do not have access to AIP funding.

This board's acceptance of

stimulus money in the amount of

$9.6 million was an extremely poor decision.

• Neil A. Weaver is a Carson City resident and a taxpayer.