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State Dollars Help Boondoggle Take Off

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2007

Lawmakers, in Tallahassee to deal with a $1.1 billion budget shortfall, are preaching the need for fiscal austerity. But they don't deserve much credence when the state has spent more than $32 million for the planning of an unneeded Panhandle airport and, as the Tribune's Mike Salinero reports, still plans to spend about $87.3 million more in the coming years on the boondoggle.

The Panama City airport, already underutilized, is being moved into the middle of nowhere. The sole purpose is to help St. Joe Co., which plans to develop the surrounding region.

The project will destroy 2,000 acres of wetlands and encourage surrounding development that would pave over thousands more.

Yet state transportation officials have pushed the scheme and state and federal regulators have given it the green light, even though the existing Panama City airport has lost airline traffic and still has room for growth.
State lawmakers are quick to accuse local governments of waste, but ventures like this show they have no room to talk.

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