EDITORIAL: City Should Seriously Consider Regional Partnership to Run Lambert Airport
Date Posted: January 3, 2020
Posted In: Discussion, Ideas, Regionalism,
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: With privatization of St. Louis Lambert International Airport no longer on the table, Mayor Lyda Krewson and the Board of Aldermen should take very seriously the possibility of bringing surrounding counties into a partnership or negotiating their outright purchase of the airport. Political and business leaders of outside counties have, for years, been looking for an opening to propose such a plan, and now that Krewson has killed the privatization effort, they appear closer to crafting a serious proposal.
As the Post-Dispatch’s Jacob Barker reported Wednesday, officials in St. Charles, St. Louis and Jefferson counties have discussed an outright purchase of Lambert from the city. Franklin County and the Metro East might also be brought into the discussion.
Residents of those counties share the frustration of air travelers in the city of St. Louis that Lambert isn’t realizing its full potential. City management has kept the airport on a stable trajectory, and airport user fees have helped keep airport operations solvent. But concessions and other amenities are nowhere close to the standards of other metropolitan U.S. airports. Airlines and cargo carriers continue to keep the airport at arm’s length when considering hubs or route expansions.
Since the vast bulk of airport passengers reside outside the city, doesn’t it make sense for outside county governments to make a financial investment in Lambert’s management? There’s no reason for the city to make a buy-in cheap or easy. Lambert is St. Louis’ most important asset, the product of decades of investment, risk and sacrifice.
What St. Louis needs most is a cash infusion to address a persistent citywide insolvency problem — a problem that seems destined only to worsen over time as pension pressures, deteriorating infrastructure and spreading blight require ever-heavier demands on a dwindling tax base. That was Krewson’s main motivation for pursuing private management.
The financial backer of privatization, libertarian mega-donor Rex Sinquefield, sees the city’s insolvency as a big impediment to his goal of eliminating the city’s earnings tax. If outside counties can come up with the billions of dollars required to purchase a stake in the airport, this might be an idea Sinquefield could embrace with similar enthusiasm.
There’s still good reason for St. Louisans to be skeptical of any takeover by outsiders, which is why any negotiating process must contain far fewer closed-door meetings and far greater opportunities for public observation and input. Any deal that emerges must include a referendum that forces city officials to explain what they’re doing and make a case to the public about why this would be a good move.