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March 12, 1999 Friday, FINAL / ALL

SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. 14A

LENGTH: 286 words

HEADLINE: HOUSE FUNDING BILL SEEKS $6.5 MILLION FOR HOPKINS

BYLINE: By SABRINA EATON; PLAIN DEALER BUREAU

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

BODY:
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport's yearly share of federal maintenance and construction funds would triple to $6.55 million under an airport funding bill approved yesterday by the House Transportation Committee, said Republican committee member Steve LaTourette.

The increase for Hopkins and other airports around the country would come from full use of air ticket tax money in the Aviation Trust Fund. Although the fund is supposed to be used to maintain airports, in past years budget writers have withheld some of the money to mask the size of the federal budget deficit. Of the $10 billion taxpayers sent to the trust fund last year, LaTourette said $4.4 billion was siphoned off for non-aviation purposes.

"If we're going to ask Americans to pay ticket taxes, fuel taxes and excise taxes, that money should be used to make our airports safer and more efficient," said LaTourette, of Madison. "This bill is going to free up billions of dollars to make our airports safer and it will also enable us to add or improve runways and make other needed airport improvements."

LaTourette said the "Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century" would boost Hopkins' yearly funding from $2.18 million to $6.55 million. Akron-Canton Regional's share would increase from $1.21 million to $3.64 million, he said, and Burke Lakefront Airport, which currently gets nothing, would get $200,000.

Although the Clinton administration opposes Transportation Committee Chairman Bud Shuster's effort to separate the trust fund from the federal budget, LaTourette noted that Shuster succeeded last year in dedicating gasoline taxes that had been used to mask the defecit for road and bridge improvements.

LOAD-DATE: March 13, 1999