LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic Universe-Document

LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic

March 15, 2000, Wednesday

SECTION: LOCAL;Pg. B-2:7; B-6:1

LENGTH: 488 words

HEADLINE: FAA funding bill contains $5.3 million for S.D. airport

BYLINE: Otto Kreisher; COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

BODY:
WASHINGTON -- San Diego's Lindbergh Field would receive $5.3 million under a hotly contested bill the House is expected to send President Clinton this week.

The measure, which would provide billions in additional dollars for the nation's airports and air traffic system over the next three years, also would provide funding to smaller airports in the San Diego area.

Throughout California, airports would receive $200 million from the bill, which Clinton is expected to sign. Also, millions of dollars more could be available for the airports under a provision of the bill that allows airports to raise a fee departing passengers pay on airline tickets from $3 to $4.50 for each leg of a trip.

A Port of San Diego spokeswoman said the airport would use the additional money for "an array of programs," but would not specify.

The airport has started a $19 million runway reconstruction project and is engaged in an extensive effort to soundproof hundreds of homes under the Lindbergh flight pattern.

The general aviation fields in the area also would receive increased grants, ranging for $1 million for McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad and Imperial County Airport, to $150,000 each for Brown Field, Borrego Springs, Gillespie Field, Montgomery Field, Oceanside Municipal and Ramona Airport.

San Diego County's congressmen have mixed feelings about the bill.

Rep. Ron Packard, R-Carlsbad, opposes the bill because of the potential passenger fee increase.

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Escondido, expressed concern that the bill would increase air fares, and he emphasized that the priority in spending additional funds had to be on improving safety.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, strongly supported the bill. He said the increased funding for Lindbergh, also known as San Diego International Airport, would not come at the expense of other needed transportation programs.

The funds are contained in a $40 billion, three-year reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration. The bill would provide money for many aviation programs that have been underfunded while Congress struggled to craft a long-term plan.

The bill has been bottled up in a heated fight between transportation advocates and lawmakers who would like to spend the money on other programs.

But after two years of frustration, a compromise bill was approved by the Senate last week by a vote of 82-17.

Clinton is expected to sign the bill if the House approves it, although next year's authorization of $12.7 billion is $1.5 billion more than he requested.

The bill requires that all the revenues and interest from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund for the next three years -- estimated at $33 billion total -- be spent on aviation programs. Much of the money, which comes from taxes and fees imposed on commercial air traffic, has been withheld or diverted to other programs.

LOAD-DATE: March 17, 2000