Lambert Airport Privatization Continues History of Missed Landings on Regional Value

After its construction in 1956, the domed design for St. Louis Lambert International Airport’s main terminal became the prototype for airport terminals. While St. Louis County passed the city of St. Louis in population by the end of the decade, the city was still the “Lion of the Valley,” and the best steward of our most valuable regional asset, the airport. By 1970, however, the city population had shrunk to 622,236 as the county population was approaching 1 million.

Nevertheless, in a display of incredible hubris, Mayor Alfonso Cervantes proposed a new airport in Illinois, even though Missouri was the home of 15 million of the 17.5 million annual passengers at Lambert. After the Rand Corp. published a report in 1972 citing St. Louis’ “unusual rate of decline,” the Post-Dispatch suggested a future course for regional cooperation, explaining, “St. Louis must accommodate itself to a less vigorous role within the metropolitan family, at the same time persuading members of the family, as well as relatives in Jefferson City and Washington, that it can’t support itself any longer.”

Indeed, Lambert Airport had been supported by user fees and funds from Washington since 1956, while it paid 6% of its gross annual revenue to support the city budget. The Post-Dispatch believed “metropolitan airport revenues, most of which are generated by St. Louis county airport users, should be applied wholly to support metropolitan airport service.” When a federal law passed in 1982 prohibiting such diversion of airport revenue to municipal coffers, “relatives” in Washington exempted the city’s gross-receipts tax which amounted to $3.5 million annually by 1992.

Meanwhile, metropolitan family members wanted a greater role in airport decisions. Running for St. Louis County Executive in 1990, Buzz Westfall announced he would push for regional ownership and management of all airports in the region. When Mayor Vince Schoemehl floated a plan for more regional control, City Comptroller Virvus Jones opposed it unless the county paid the city one-half of the $1 billion he said the airport was worth, causing the Post-Dispatch to editorialize, “Mr. Jones neglects the fact that much of Lambert’s supposed $1 billion value arises from federal, not local, investment.” William Woo predicted, “Sooner or later, the absurdity of St. Louis trying alone to operate an international airport used by an area population of 2.5 million will become apparent.”

When relatives in Washington introduced legislation allowing Lambert Airport to charge a passenger fee to finance expansion, the Post-Dispatch reasoned, “It makes some sense to ask those who will benefit most directly from improved airport facilities to contribute.” Some members of the metropolitan family believed those who pay should also have a voice on how the airport would expand. When the city unilaterally decided to build the new runway through Bridgeton with a lower flight path over St. Charles, I filed legislation to establish regional airport governance.

With the support of all the senators from St. Louis, St. Charles, Jefferson and Franklin counties, I passed an amendment establishing a Missouri Regional Airport Commission. A state representative from the city, forgetting all the previous calls for regional control, called my constituents and me “racists” because the city had elected a black mayor and comptroller. The city’s “relatives in Jefferson City” made sure the bill died.

Today, privatization is being discussed as a way for the city to substantially increase the $6.5 million it takes from revenue paid by all who use the airport. If privatization will result in greater efficiency, it should be considered.

However, any money saved should be used to improve the airport or reduce landing fees. Equally important, this regionally important decision will be made by the board of aldermen of a city that contains 12 percent of the region’s citizens, whose earnings, sales, property and state income tax support the city, its institutions, its convention center and the most generous historic tax credit program in the country. If the city insists on such a “vigorous role within the metropolitan family,” other family members may turn a deaf ear to future complaints from the city that “it can’t support itself any longer.”