Apples and Oranges?
George Loegering, 01/26/03

I can remember as a young boy getting shoes for my Christmas present instead of a bicycle. Yes, that can happen along with rationing butter, beef and gasoline even here in the good old US of A. But things changed, as adults most of us have enjoyed decades of prosperity, abundance, freedom and technical advances. We have affordable public transportation-it's even possible for the average person to fly around the world in two days with two stops ! This reality eventually brings all people together and makes possible a peaceful world so everyone can enjoy the best of all cultures.

Now comes two totally "dependent" independent public projects with totally separate funding mechanisms; an airport and a hospital. They are both economically unsound and no investor has or will come forward to provide them. This type of situation is the reason state and federal governments in the past have provided funding for roads, electrical and telephone systems, libraries and other publicly beneficial infrastructure including airports and hospitals that would otherwise not have been built. History has shown that these government projects are ultimately beneficial for the majority of citizens, even the taxpayers that paid for these projects.

The airline/aircraft industry is an established business (originally government subsidized till the 1960's) that directly generates the majority of funding for new airports. Hospitals are funded mainly by the amounts that are paid by the patients for services. Do you know who the largest hospital payer is? It's the state and federal government! They get the money from taxpayers. Unfortunately, Medicare and Medical are now paying less and that makes hospitals less able to support themselves much less rebuild new facilities or install new technology.

The fact that the State of California is temporally mismanaged necessitating stealing a few million from the aviation trust fund (to lessen the 20 billion shortfall) is simply a desperate measure to avoid bankruptcy and anarchy. History shows that trust funds are restored in due course when the economy gets better or the government changes. No one is advocating proceeding to build an airport without the promised funding. However, if we did proceed with the promised funding the county would only pay 5.5 % of the cost of the new airport which gets them 20 acres of level developable land (the city of Redding just sold 2.66ac of airport land for $510,000), 94.5% of the airport cost is no repayment grant funding. If it is built, the new Weaverville airport would be a fantastic opportunity to establish non-government businesses and jobs so that the citizens of our county can become less reliant on the vagarities of government funding and jobs. Delaying and requesting information/studies to drive up the cost to abort a project, equating state fiscal problems and funding with federal, confusing the issues by mixing state funding with federal funds administered by the state are regressive tactics, the reason nothing gets done!

The proposed new hospital, like the new airport, also would provide more jobs and services for our community. I would support a new hospital , would support a public funding mechanism to build/operate it and would locate it on the hill with the airport so everyone can enjoy the view. Why can't we see that the old airport and the old hospital have the same problem? Both are out of spec and beyond their useful life and are mandated to close-worse, they cannot prosper in today's environment. Where is the money for the new hospital coming from? Won't it have to be repaid? The new Susanville Hospital in Lassen County which is scheduled to open soon after several years of struggle was built with private cooperate funds and most of it needs to be repaid (probably by the expanding families of the expanding prison support structure). Don't we have anyone in Trinity County able to find a way to fund our hospital? Why are we equating funding a hospital with an airport-so we can continue to pay the losses? Why are we demanding a business plan for the airport (which is subsidized and has great potential) but apparently have no operational plan and a prolonged history of failure for the hospital?

Why do we wring our hands; o my, how do we pay for or even maintain $20 million projects. In the case of the county airports we managed with half the current state support (until an increase a few years ago) by volunteering and working together. All of the five Trinity County airports are significantly improved by several million dollars over what they were 20 years ago. The possibility of reduced state funding for a year or so may impact the airports, but most certainly it will affect many other state funded services including the hospital-but guess what, it's a problem for every county and must be dealt with. So why can't we in Trinity County, specifically those in Weaverville, work together on both projects and help our community grow in a normal healthy way? WE don't have to be content with a stagnate population, poor business opportunities, a failing private economy, and inferior public facilities.