Re-vote on Airport Authority Funding Fails To Stop Project

In one last ditch effort an effort was made to ground the new Municipal Airport Authorities funding but the jet had already taken off,

At Monday evening’s Moose Jaw City Council meeting Councillor Brian Swanson asked Council to reconsider proposed funding to the Moose Jaw Municipal Airport Authority. The newly created Airport Authority has been a long process in which in the end Budget Committee agreed to increase funding from $30,000 annually to $146,646 annually.

“The municipal airport is the big winner in this year’s budget. I would suggest the airport as a newly created airport authority do what other airport authorities do and get their revenues from other users. That is why airport authorities are created to remove municipal airports from the burden paid by municipal taxpayers. That is what is done everywhere else,” Councillor Swanson stated.

“In the sell that was done on the municipal airport were I believe significantly overstated and the primary benefit to a very small group of users understated,” he said.

Councillor Swanson said he opposed increasing funding to the municipal airport because the funds could be used in core infrastructure. Core infrastructure is usually seen as sewer and water and streets and roads.

“The city has allocated $500,000 in capital dollars to the municipal airport. This in a time when our core infrastructure is under serious stress. To increase money to the municipal airport is not justifiable to the taxpayers,” Councillor Swanson stated.

“The benefit falls to too narrow of a group and we have higher priority needs for the money,” he said.

Despite Councillor Swnason’s request for a re-vote the motion was still passed in a 5 - 2 vote with Councillors Swanson and Dawn Luhning opposed.

The conversion of the Moose Jaw Municipal Airport has been a very controversial issue with numerous studies and attempts to establish it. The reason for creating the Airport Authority has been stated as it would allow the expansion of the facility and allow greater economic opportunities for the city.

moose jawFebruary 28, 2019