With the Montreign Casino set to open in 2017, some in Sullivan County think legislators should bet about $1 million in taxpayer money on the idea that gamblers and others will want to pay to make greater use of Sullivan County International Airport (SCIA), and be willing to pay higher fees to do so.

The county is already planning a 10,000 square foot expansion of the facility, 90% of which will be paid for by a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The county manager and the Department of Public Works have now been requesting that the expansion should be upped to 14,000 square feet—which would double the cost—mostly because of larger doors that would accommodate larger corporate jets. This plan, however, would mean bonding an additional $1 million, with taxpayers footing the bill, because the FAA will not kick in for the larger expansion.

Sullivan County Legislator Alan Sorensen has said that he doesn’t believe the people who rent hangar space at the airport in the Town of Bethel will be willing to pay fees large enough to cover the cost of the bonding debt.

Sorensen wrote in a recent article about this topic, “It is important for me to say that I respect the county staff members at the SCIA who continue to do a great job operating and maintaining the county airport. Without their dedication, the airport would not be what it is today.

“However, the airport was overbuilt in 1969 in anticipation of the coming of gaming, and with gaming now here, may finally be right-sized for its future operation. Now is not the time for county government to overbuild it once again.”

He suggests that the county pursue private-public partnerships for any future projects at the airport to ensure that any future expansions are designed for a market that will use them. We believe this is a more sensible way to go, than to jump into a larger expansion that may not be warranted.

This is not to suggest there is no synergy between airports and casinos. A story from the Press of Atlantic City explains how the casinos there will pay for a corporate jet to fly their really high rollers from their homes to the gaming floors and back again. The story also says, “Atlantic City’s casinos have long treated their top players far differently than other gamblers.”

There are, however, some significant differences between the airport in Atlantic City and the one in Sullivan County. In 2011, the Atlantic City International Airport had 105,083 aircraft operations, an average of 288 per day. For the 12-month period ending October 31, 2011 SCIA, had 28,650 aircraft operations, for an average of 78 per day.

While it is possible that a larger hangar would attract more private jets to SCIA once the Montreign Casino opens in the Town of Thompson in 2017, there is no guarantee of the outcome.

Further, gambling taxpayer money on a project that is intended to benefit individuals and corporations that are wealthy enough to own private jets does not seem like a wise investment on the part of taxpayers as a whole. This is especially true when it is clear that taxpayers will already be picking up the cost of the new county jail, bridge and road repair, and as Sorensen mentioned in his article, finding a suitable location for the sheriff’s road patrol, which is currently housed in a mansion that should probably be condemned.

For now, the legislature has tabled a vote on the hangar issue and will likely reconsider it after seeing a presentation about the proposed larger expansion. The airport is certainly an important facility in the county, and we endorse the more modest expansion that would be 90% paid for by the federal government.

But to commit an additional $1 million in local taxpayer dollars to an even larger expansion, without a guarantee that it will result in at least a break-even revenue scenario for the county, would be, as Legislator Cora Edwards said, not fair to county taxpayers.