COMMITTEE DROPS TOWER FUNDING FOR CAPE AIRPORT

Funding for the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport traffic control tower soared in the Missouri House but crashed in a Senate committee.

The House had included $77,000 in the 1996-97 budget to help fund the airport tower in the wake of the Federal Aviation Administration's decision no longer to fund it.

But the Senate appropriations committee removed the funding from a transportation bill before it reached the Senate floor.

The Senate then approved the appropriations bill. Differences between the House and Senate bill are currently being ironed out in a conference committee. The compromise bill then must go back to both houses for final approval.

But local lawmakers concede it is an uphill battle to restore funding for the airport tower, particularly because the legislative session wraps up in a few weeks.

The $77,000 would have funded about half the cost of operating the airport tower, with the city paying the other half.

The lack of state aid means the city of Cape Girardeau will have to pay the entire bill unless it can secure funding from another source.

Lawmakers have set aside $257,000 in the 1996-97 budget to be used for airport improvements around the state.

Assuming that amount remains in the budget, the city of Cape Girardeau could apply for some of that money.

State Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said the city of Marble Hill plans to apply for $100,000 of the money this year to improve its small airport in anticipation of a major industry moving to Bollinger County. The business, which hasn't been named yet, ultimately could employ several hundred people.

If all goes well, Marble Hill would apply for another $100,000 for airport improvements next year, Kinder said.

It is unclear if Cape Girardeau could tap into that funding pot.

Al Spradling III, Cape's mayor, said he doesn't know if a tower operation qualifies as an airport improvement.

"Right now, I think we have to budget the full amount of the operation and see what happens after that," Spradling said.

Spradling said the tower will remain open despite the funding setback.

"We don't have any intentions of shutting down the tower," he said. "Now we have to cut something else out of the budget to make room for it."

Spradling said the city could ask surrounding cities to help fund the tower, but it can't mandate they pay.

"The other scenario is to get our boardings up," Spradling said.

If annual boardings at the airport climb to more than 10,000, the city might be able to persuade the FAA to restore federal funding of the tower, the mayor said.

State Sen. Jerry Howard, D-Dexter, serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee that denied state funding for the Cape tower.

He said there was consensus on the committee at the beginning of the legislative session that the state should be wary of picking up the tab for programs whose federal funding had been cut.

Howard said the state doesn't have enough money to make up for all the cuts in federal funding for various programs.

"The citizens have said, No more taxes, and the federal government is saying, No more money. That means whenever they cut out federal programs, they have to go by the wayside or else money has to be found to fund them.

"It is a Catch-22 situation," he said.

Kinder said the appropriations committee chairman, Sen. Mike Lybyer, D-Huggins, removed funding for the tower earlier this month.

"It is tough to buck the chairman of the appropriations committee," Kinder said.

State Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau, said she hadn't anticipated the Senate would cut the tower funding.

"I was so disappointed we couldn't get it back in," she said.