Letter: Spend money on buses, not airport

To the community,

For years the city has dumped money on the airport, a loser. The airport is supposed to be a self-supporting enterprise, but that is fiction. Early in his career Councilman Hal Cole said the airport was an albatross around the city’s neck. That hasn’t changed.

Today the city funnels money to the airport by paying rent, which if not a lie, is one more fiction, self-deception. The “rent” is a subsidy pure and simple.

Bill Crawford

The city should run its own bus system. Some people like the idea, but rightly ask, “Where is the money to operate the system?”

The city should stop the airport subsidy and use the money to help support the bus system. What the city is doing is subsidizing the well healed who use the airport to fly in. Hal Cole has said he supports use fees for paid parking OK, why not the airport users?

Bill Crawford, South Lake Tahoe

PS: Before the city started airport rent the city made loans to the airport until the auditor said the loans should be called gifts because the city would not get the money back.