STATE MAY FUND TOWER; CITY NOW PAYS AIRPORT CONTROL TOWER COSTS

Missouri would fund most if not all of the expense of operating the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport control tower under a bill that has passed the state Senate.

The bill would provide added funding for Missouri's general aviation airports, including money for the operation of control towers in Cape Girardeau and Jefferson City.

Under the measure, Cape Girardeau could receive up to $125,000 a year for its tower operation.

Cape Girardeau Regional Airport manager Bruce Loy said that would pay close to 100 percent of the city's costs.

The city has been footing the bill since the federal government ceased funding the tower operation in 1995.

On the House side, the Motor Vehicle Committee may vote today on the aviation-funding bill. The committee is chaired by Rep. Larry Thomason, D-Kennett. Rep. David Schwab, R-Jackson, also serves on the committee. Both back the measure. Thomason is the chief sponsor of the House bill.

The committee heard about a half hour of testimony Monday at the state capitol. It is scheduled to reconvene today to hear more testimony.

Thomason said the committee would pass the bill today and send it to the full House.

Thomason predicted the House would pass the bill, perhaps as early as this week.

The measure had widespread support in the Senate, where it passed 28 to 4 last week. Two senators were absent. All four "no" votes came from St. Louis area lawmakers.

The measure was a substitute for two other Senate bills, including one offered by state Sen. Jerry Howard, D-Dexter.

Thomason said his Motor Vehicle Committee heard the bill because aviation funding comes under the control of the Missouri Department of Transportation.

TWA, the St. Louis-based airline, is a leading opponent of the general-aviation-funding bill.

Thomason has pushed for increased funding for general-aviation airports for the last couple of years.

Thomason said the bill would benefit all of rural Missouri as well as urban areas with general-aviation airports.

"The only people who don't really benefit are the two major airports," he said.

The bill would put some $3.5 million into a Missouri Department of Transportation fund that would provide grants for general aviation airports. That money, generated by the state's tax on jet fuel, currently goes into Missouri's general revenue fund.

MoDOT currently has little money to award in improvement grants to general-aviation airports.

Thomason said that shifting the jet-fuel-tax revenue over to the aviation fund would provide grants for airport improvements across the state, including some funding for airport control towers. Such improvements could spur economic development in Southeast Missouri and other regions of the state, he said.

"It is one of the best economic development programs that we can do because it doesn't cost us a penny."

Thomason criticized TWA's opposition to the bill. "This bill will not cost them a single penny. They are already paying it," he said of the fuel tax. "They want to hurt general aviation in the state," said Thomason.

He said TWA is getting a multimillion-dollar tax break on the jet fuel taxes it pays, thanks to previous action by the Legislature.

"Politically, I am irritated by their position," he said.

Schwab said it makes sense to earmark the fuel-tax money for general-aviation projects.

"I guess I look at it as a user tax," he said.

Besides, Schwab said, the tax is already being collected. "It is not a tax increase."