Tue, Jul 08, 2003
Secret Pact's Details Partially Uncovered
Crain's Chicago Business
writer Greg Hinz has pulled back the covers from a
previously-secret deal worked out by Mayor Daley's Chicago and the
airlines that will use an expanded O'Hare International
Airport.
He writes, "The city of Chicago and airlines that operate at
O’Hare International Airport have reached agreement on a
multibillion-dollar scheme to finance the first major phase of the
city’s ambitious runway expansion plan. Under an unannounced
pact that was signed in May, $2.9 billion has been committed to pay
for engineering, design, land acquisition and construction of one
new runway, relocation of another and extensive work on a third,
industry sources say. The funds will come from existing passenger
fees and higher landing charges levied on airlines, and from $300
million in anticipated federal grants."
In other words, about 10% of the initial expense will be
borne by taxpayers across the USA; the rest will be tax monies
collected by the airlines, on behalf of the governments involved.
What this deal means, Hinz says, is that, "The only remaining
question, then, is if and when the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) will give needed approval to the plan."
It's not that simple; it's never
that simple. There's another nearly-four-billion dollars' needed
for the full plan, which needs to come from somewhere; and there
are the suburbs, existing property-owners, various enviros of
varying credibility -- all lining up to either delay the project,
or get paid to get out of the way. If everything goes perfectly,
and a few unorthodox legal procedures are invoked by the Mayor's
buddies in state government, construction itself could start in a
year or two.
The so-called "majority in interest approval," many months in
the making, will not be made public, though parts of it have been
leaked third-hand...
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