Proposed Airport Deal Raises LOTS of Questions...

September 16, 2007

Remember the much-ballyhooed announcement a few months back of VX Aerospace locating at the Foothills Regional Airport to manufacture small airplanes? It’s another step forward in economic development brought to you by your Caldwell County Commissioners, this time in partnership with the Burke commissioners and the cities of Lenoir and Morganton.

I have obtained a copy of the latest agreement among these four “government partners,” as the document calls them, that raises more questions than it answers for most citizens who weren’t sitting there as it was being drafted. How I received a copy is no big deal, because 50 or more people out there have them, so keeping it secret is a bit difficult.

What most people would ask, is this another example of the negotiations-in-secret style we all know from our recent experiences with Google?

Not only a sweetheart deal for VX Aerospace, these 14 pages are also a sweetheart deal for the Foothills Regional Airport Authority—setting up a 20-year period in which all property taxes that the company would ordinarily pay are, instead, paid back to the airport authority. After the 20 years, a review by the parties would determine what to do next.

Supporters would point out that the airport authority has always been jointly funded by the governments of Morganton and Lenoir.

Up front, the agreement creates a government-owned industrial park of sorts in which VX Aerospace would be the first customer, buying 20 of the airport’s 800 “excess” acres. The company immediately benefits from two major infrastructure projects purchased by tax dollars: a $650,000 water line extension and a $350,000 aircraft storage hangar.

The planners will tell you that the water line will be financed, most if not all, by a Community Development Block Grant. Block grants are taxpayer dollars, too, and I wonder if our elected officials would ever pay a million dollars to help a business that’s already here. Plus, the plan states in several places that “other infrastructure projects may require local funding.”

That means, of course, that the local governments will have to fork over regular ol’ taxpayer dollars to build VX Aerospace a hangar and to take care of other unspecified and unanticipated expenses that might arise.

The agreement even hedges on the estimated cost figures for both planned projects, depending on unforeseen contingencies. There’s no mention of what funds VX Aerospace might dedicate to the new development—other than a fabrication plant—or even what it will pay for the 20 acres and what the Airport Authority might do with those funds.

I’m not saying that this plan is necessarily a white elephant. Apparently, for four local governments to be interested there must be some abstract merit. And if I list reasons why I think the idea stinks, I’m sure I would be outgunned by council members and commissioners from both counties with a litany of reasons why it’s the best thing since sliced bread.

For one thing, the land around the airport was purchased dirt cheap many years ago, and there’s been precious little development of any kind there. This agreement lays out a 20-year tax-funded arrangement to encourage commercial development of about 800 of the 1,100 acres of airport property, and logically, to grow tax bases and job opportunities for both counties.

But I have talked to one member of one of the boards who vows not to vote for this agreement without a larger financial commitment from VX Aerospace and a better idea of how the deal is supposed to benefit the taxpayer.

This official is really bothered by the 20-year time frame with no net gain in property taxes. Given a current Caldwell County controversy about county commissioners and this year’s 22.2% property tax increase, this person is clearly concerned about the chance of reelection after supporting such an airport plan.

My own reasons for bringing this agreement to light—before all four boards vote on it and it’s too late—is simply that I believe the public’s business should be conducted in public. As just one citizen, I have a lot of questions about the wisdom of the airport development’s financing plan being locked in for the next 20 years.

Why, for instance, can’t the airport authority be funded by take-off and landing fees, paid for by people who use the facility and can afford to fly, rather than spread that financial burden across everyone’s pocketbook?

By comparison, Hickory has a much greater commercial demand for an airport than either Caldwell or Burke counties, and we all see how wildly successful commercial air ventures have been at the Hickory Regional Airport. Hickory is currently without connecting air service to bigger airports, and its control tower was shut down years ago.

How much new flying into and out of rural Caldwell/Burke do we expect to see from this agreement? How many new jobs? And, together, is it really worth the cost to our remaining taxpayer households? I wonder how they might vote on the idea.