Bush's Budget Plan Could Cut Rural Air Service

Published Thursday
February 6, 2003

BY JAKE THOMPSON

WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

WASHINGTON - For Tom Krepel, president of Chadron (Neb.) State College, the ability to hop on a plane and fly quickly to Denver isn't some vacation-getaway luxury.

"To fulfill my professional obligations, I'm pretty dependent on that," he said Wednesday.

Further, Krepel said, his college and northwest Nebraska town also rely on their commercial airline link to attract faculty, students and jobs.

But in his budget released Monday, President Bush proposed drastic changes and cutbacks in the federal program that subsidizes planes flying to 92 rural communities nationwide, including Alliance, Chadron, Kearney, McCook, Norfolk and North Platte in Nebraska.

If enacted into law, many small cities might lose their airline service, said Maurice Parker, executive director of the Regional Aviation Partners, an advocacy organization.

Or, he said, they could be required to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars locally at a time when rural towns are slashing services because of declining population and revenue.

"I assume Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Montana and Arizona, you're going to see them hurt if this goes through," Parker said.

In an effort to curb costs, Bush proposed chopping subsidies in the federal Essential Air Service program from $113 million to $50 million in his 2004 budget. The program, in existence for years, gives subsidies to small airline companies who provide air service to rural towns.

Bush also proposed that to draw any federal subsidy, communities raise either 10 percent or 25 percent of the money locally, depending on the distance to a medium- or large-size airport.

The subsidies would go to the most isolated towns first, and then to less remote ones, until the $50 million is used up.

And for the first time, the subsidies could be used for shuttle bus services, further watering down the pool of cash to keep the planes flying.

All of that worries Nebraska's senators, Republican Chuck Hagel and Democrat Ben Nelson. Last year, when Bush sought other cutbacks in the program Hagel, Nelson and others rejected the idea and Congress funded the program again.

Hagel said he was "very disappointed in the White House."

"I would've thought a Republican president would have his balance and perspective a lot more in order than what this crowd does," he said. "These are important services for these communities, so we'll go in and fight it, and I'm confident we'll get the money put back in."

Nelson, too, plans to argue the money is needed to keep communities viable, and he called the idea of supplementing bus service with the essential air money "a no go."

The money isn't insignificant.

Last year, the government paid $5.6 million to airline companies to subsidize air service for the six Nebraska communities. The costliest was McCook at $1.3 million, one of the highest subsidies in the nation.

Although only a few planes fly in and out of McCook daily to Denver, City Manager John Bingham said the link is crucial. Without commercial air service, Valmont Industries Inc. wouldn't have decided to build a plant in McCook several years ago, employing roughly 150 people, he said.

"And for southwest Nebraska, that's a bunch," Bingham said.

The city would have a lot of trouble raising money to supplement the federal airline subsidy under Bush's proposed plan, he added, particularly because it's already cutting what many see as key city services.

Barb Watson, Alliance airport manager, said finding extra money locally would be hard in her community, too. The airline service is often cited by businesses leaders as vital to do their jobs, she said.

Whenever Susie Baird, the Box Butte Development Corp. director, meets with officials of companies they are trying to lure to Alliance, the first question she hears is "Can I get my people and products in and out of the area in a timely manner?"

"Nobody likes windshield time," she said.

Mike Sharkey, North Platte's airport manager, noted: "We're kind of out in the boonies."

Saying he, too, is concerned about Bush's plan, Sharkey added: "If the airlines don't have the money to fly the route and the government can't subsidize it, then what happens?"

Rep. Tom Osborne, R-Neb., said he recognizes that airline costs have soared nationwide since the September 11 terrorist attacks and that the president is struggling to cap spending.

The essential air service plan might need to be altered, he said, but to make it more reliable, not less available.

"This is just a starting point," Osborne said. "And people don't need to get alarmed, but they need to know this is what the administration is thinking."