{"id":8405,"date":"2010-11-14T09:43:41","date_gmt":"2010-11-14T15:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/?p=8405"},"modified":"2010-11-14T09:43:41","modified_gmt":"2010-11-14T15:43:41","slug":"publicprivate-cuts-both-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/14\/publicprivate-cuts-both-ways\/","title":{"rendered":"Public\/Private Cuts Both Ways"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spend a lot of time carping on when the private half of the public\/private scams renege, but sometimes the public half plays the private for the sucker. Case in point: Branson stalls on paying fees to private airport<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\nAldermen unveiled the $70.5 million budget to the public Tuesday but ultimately decided to postpone initial approval of it until they figure out whether they can find a way to fund a pay-for-performance agreement with the Branson Airport.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think the city can appropriate the money for this year and for (2011) now,” said Alderman Bob Simmons. “That would be irresponsible.”<\/p>\n

At issue is a contract, signed in 2006 and modified in 2010, in which the city agrees to pay $8.24 for each passenger the airport brings to the city. The city has not paid the final $260,000 bill for 2010 and did not include in its proposed 2011 budget the estimated $670,000 the city would be expected to owe the airport in 2011.<\/p>\n

Alderwoman Sandra Williams said the city simply can’t afford the payments, although it has a $5.7 million carryover from 2010 it plans to put in its reserve fund.<\/p>\n

Williams also said the contract with the airport never guaranteed that the city would always produce the funds.<\/p>\n

“The payments are subject to annual appropriations and therefore, there can be no assurance that future boards will approve it,” she said.<\/p>\n

Branson Airport CEO Steve Peet said the city is misinterpreting its ability to get out of the payments.<\/p>\n

“Every long-term appropriation from a city has language like that,” Peet said. “If it’s for more than 12 months you have to have that language. It’s a way into the agreement, not a way out of it.” Peet would not discuss whether the airport would consider legal action.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Keep that in mind. Sometimes when you lie down with fleas, you get dogs.<\/p>\n

Full disclosure: I love the Branson Airport. It’s tucked away nine miles into a golf course living development and sits atop a mountain. And it has direct flights to Milwaukee<\/em>, although Branson would prefer to think it’s direct flights from<\/em> Milwaukee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spend a lot of time carping on when the private half of the public\/private scams renege, but sometimes the public half plays the private for the sucker. Case in point: Branson stalls on paying fees to private airport: Aldermen unveiled the $70.5 million budget to the public Tuesday but ultimately decided to postpone initial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3334,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-springfield"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8405"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8407,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405\/revisions\/8407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}