The Continuing Debacle That Is and Will Be Our New Airport

I have to hand it to our Kansas City Star.

They've been behind a new airport for us from the start and they are just not going to let up on it, that seems clear. Here's their latest contribution.

New KCI will help region grow faster than U.S.

A bit from the article:

Kansas City’s economy will fly higher than the rest of the nation in coming years, as construction of a new airport terminal masks the region’s “disappointing” comparison to similar markets, said a forecast released Friday.

The $1.4 billion project at Kansas City International Airport stands at the center of economist Frank Lenk’s outlook for the region in 2019 and 2020. Lenk provided his annual economic projections at a Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce breakfast Friday at the Kansas City Marriott Downtown.

Apparently, just building, building an airport makes an area's economy soar.

Sure it does.

More from the article:

Lenk’s outlook reminded his audience that Harley-Davidson is shutting down its factory next year, and Procter & Gamble is heading that way in 2020, taking other jobs with them. T-Mobile plans to turn Sprint’s Overland Park headquarters campus into a secondary propertyif Washington approves the companies’ plans to merge.

Those setbacks, his report noted, will be offset by continued expansion at the Cerner Innovation Campus and Garmin’s Olathe operations, job growth at Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies and Burns & McDonnell, and new call centers and distribution centers opening here.

This is the normal churn of an active economy, saidLenk’s prepared report, which was provided to The Star ahead of his presentation.

This is the part that slays me.

KCI is something different.

“Because the funds to build the airport are coming from the airlines and not local taxpayers, this expenditure brings net new dollars to the regional economy that would not otherwise be expected,” Lenk’s report said.

Specifically, KCI’s new terminal means construction jobs. Spending by those workers means more jobs in other fields.

Wow.  "...the funds to build the airport are coming from the airlines and not local taxpayers."

O.M.G.

I don't know where the author of the article and the Star think those airlines get their funds Someone needs to tell them about plane tickets. One day very soon we'll have conversations beginning like this: "Remember when it didn't used to cost that much to fly out of Kansas City?"

And the second part of that? Where "Spending by those (construction) workers means more jobs in other fields."

That's another beauty.

How much do people think these construction workers make, anyway?

And then, if they weren't building the airport, do people really think these same construction workers would be just sitting around, not working, not making their own paychecks?

Really?

Construction workers, getting their regular paychecks that they would be getting anyway are going to lift the Kansas City economy? Really? That's how that will work?

And check out that cost.

Before this was voted on and passed, it was promised it would't be that expensive. 

Before the vote, I said it would hit a 1 billion dollar cost.

Now?

Ground isn't even plowed and it's going to cost 1.4 billion.

As if that, the cost, isn't enough, our same paper posted this 4 months ago.

Opening of new KCI terminal, originally November 2021, is already delayed

So it's going to cost us far more than estimated, projected--promised--and it's going to be late, too.

But hey, the airlines are going to build it, not us, so that makes everything a-okay.

Thanks, Kansas City Star! Thanks, City Hall!

We'll love walking away from our existing facilities, the terminals and all, just so we can build this expensive, very late boondoggle.

Costs and environment be damned.