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This airport expansion financing question is another example of the RIAC board attempting to hide escalating costs and lower federal grant expectations. I don't know why they play these games. It makes no sense. The governor's budget for FY-2012 shows an expected $83.4 million FAA Airport Improvement Grant. The governor's FY-2013 Budget shows that number reduced to $73.9 million for the FAA grants. That is a 12% drop in expected federal aid. More alarmingly the FY-2013 Governor's Budget shows a $50.3 million increase in the cost of the project. This item is buried from the "improvement" we all have been talking about (T.F. Green Infrastructure Expansion and Enhancement) and is labeled "T. F. Green General Improvements."

The point is that the RIAC board knew enough about this increased cost to put it into the Governor's Budget. Yet, now they are claiming that this is a new development? When you look at what the General Assembly approved, you see an increase in cost of $40 million and a decrease in addition to a drop of $10 million in federal funding. This is all in addition to the extra noise mitigation that is not discussed: $75 million. You have to tack on the glycol plant - another $25 million of which RIAC has found $3 million in federal funds and other funds to apply.

The bottom line is that the Governor's Budget is showing $294 million for this project of which $176 million is projected to be provided by FAA. Given the situation in Washington, this federal projection is shaky. And it does not include wetlands mitigation. The final number for state financing of this project is probably in the $140 million range. Given the 38 Studios disaster, the financing will double this cost for a final number including federal funding of around $330 million. And that does not include terminal improvements.

All of this set against dropping passenger counts and a Congress that is turning its attention to different priorities - such as fixing the air traffic controller situation to avoid situations like what happened at Reagan National Airport this week where an inbound plane was directed to the same runway as two outbound planes. Congress is really mad about that one!

From: Runway safety areas ‘considerably’ more costly than projected

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