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An artist’s illustration shows the new $99 million Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control facility that will be built at McCarran International Airport. The facility is expected to be operational in early 2015.
By Karoun Demirjian (contact) 
, Kyle B. Hansen (contact)
Published Tuesday, July 26, 2011 | 9:29 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, July 27, 2011 | 9:13 p.m.
Sun archives
- Work on McCarran tower halted amid FAA funding flap (7-25-2011)
- 1 Nevada FAA worker furloughed in squabble over aviation subsidies (7-22-2011)
- Miles from major metro area, rural Ely airport could close (7-21-2011)
- House moves toward showdown with Senate on FAA (7-20-2011)
- McCarran breaks ground on $99 million air traffic tower (5-31-2011)
- Senate bill would prop up rural air service in Nevada (2-1-2011)
Sun coverage
Construction workers on Tuesday were supposed to erect a crane to help build a 352-foot air traffic control tower at McCarran International Airport.
And other workers were scheduled to be installing lights along a closed runway so it could return to service in a few weeks.
But both projects at McCarran — the eighth busiest airport in the nation — have been shut down, the victim of a Capitol Hill debate primarily over White Pine County Airport in Ely, the most rural commercial airport in the country.
At issue is whether to reduce the amount of federal subsidies awarded to airlines serving rural airports in order to help them stay in business and on the nation’s transportation grid.
The Ely airport is receiving the most attention in the political squabble in Congress because the small airline that serves White Pine County would have its subsidy slashed to a quarter of what it is now. That proposal was contained in a bill to extend funding for the Federal Aviation Administration.
The only commercial airline that flies into Ely, Great Lakes Airlines, had been receiving $3,720 per passenger in government subsidies. The bill, sponsored by House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., would cut that to $1,000 per passenger.
Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, oppose the cut and the Senate and House were unable to reach an agreement to fund the FAA by the Friday deadline.
Most of the Nevada delegation opposes the subsidy cut that is fueling the standoff, including both of the state’s Senate candidates, Democrat Rep. Shelley Berkley and Republican Sen. Dean Heller.
“Republicans have now forced the FAA to suspend construction on the new McCarran tower, and that means the men and women working on this project will not be bringing home a paycheck to support their families,” Berkley said in a statement.
Heller said he would support Reid and vote for a “clean” FAA bill — one without the cut to Ely’s service.
“I believe Mica had good intentions, I’m not going to criticize him,” Heller said. “But he has no idea how difficult things and times are in Nevada right now. These are flights back and forth from Las Vegas to Ely, and specifically, I believe that the prison out there in Ely, their medical care comes from Las Vegas. So in order to get the essential medical care to that prison, that flight needs to occur.”
Reid has been trying to get an FAA extension bill through Congress for months now: The Senate passed its version in February.
“Despite the thousands of workers furloughed and vital job-creating construction projects halted in Nevada and throughout the country, House Republicans are nowhere to be found — refusing to come back to the negotiating table after pulling yet another cheap political stunt at the expense of rural Americans,” he said in a statement.
But not all of Nevada’s representatives saw the standoff as a moment to band together to safeguard the interests of the whole state.
Nevada Rep. Joe Heck, whose district includes parts of Las Vegas but is far from Ely, laid the blame exclusively on Democrats for holding up the process by insisting on the version that they voted for — even though, his office points out, it contains an even sharper shuttering of Ely by phasing out any airport that doesn't see an average of ten passengers or more per day. Ely sees, on average, about three.
“I voted for this bill to protect the jobs of Nevadans working on McCarran Airport’s new traffic control tower. Unfortunately, the same day it was reported that Clark County’s unemployment rose from 12.4 percent to 13.8 percent, the Senate recessed without considering the FAA funding extension,” Heck said in a statement. “Because of the Senate’s decision, Nevadans working on McCarran’s new traffic control tower will suffer.”
Indeed, over the weekend nearly 4,000 FAA employees across the country were furloughed, causing 150 airport projects to be put on hold for lack of FAA oversight.
Only one of those employees was based in Nevada — the one who oversees FAA construction projects at McCarran. So dozens of construction workers are without work this week.
Air traffic controllers and other employees needed to keep planes flying safely weren’t furloughed and projects administered by the airport itself, such as the construction of Terminal 3 and the C Gate improvements, are not affected.
The FAA broke ground for the new control tower at the end of May. The old tower, built in 1983, is too small to house the air traffic controllers needed as McCarran has grown. It also has a blind spot that makes it difficult to monitor the whole airport.
“It’s one of our more high-priority, important tower projects and … people are not working on that project today,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a conference call with reporters Monday. “It’s a critical, critical project for our whole air traffic control system.”
About 40 to 50 workers were scheduled to be on the project this week, according to project manager Sasha Milosavljevich from Archer Western Construction.
The $43.4 million contract to build the tower could rise since it is costing the contractor about $8,500 per day in equipment rental and overhead costs during the shutdown, Milosavljevich said.
The runway lighting project is two-thirds done. The last of the three runways getting the lights was closed for the work, which was scheduled to be done Aug. 14.
Airport and FAA officials met Tuesday to discuss reopening the runway without the new lights, which would have improved safety for aircraft and vehicles on the ground when crossing the runways.
The lights have already been installed on two runways, but they won’t be turned on until the third runway is done.
The project was part of a $214 million contract for Science Applications International to install lights at 13 airports. FAA officials weren’t sure Tuesday how much the Las Vegas portion cost because anybody who would know had been furloughed.
“The economy has devastated construction in Las Vegas in the last couple years and we were really excited to get this going,” said Darren Enns, the secretary-treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council. “It’s disheartening we’re in this position now and our people have to stay home while Congress works this out.”
LaHood, a Republican who served in the House for 14 years before taking over the transportation department for President Barack Obama, asked that Congress put its differences aside to pass a funding bill immediately and debate the controversial provisions later.
“They should save the debate for a day when they have time to debate essential air service and the labor provision,” he said.
Thanks Joe. The options are rationing my mother's Medicare or putting people to work. You are a cold SOB! This is the change Republicans were elected for? I don't think so. November 2012 can't come soon enough.
Should of never started a subsidy . criminals get better treatment than we do. More bleeding of our money by the crooks at the federal gov.
Not republicans! The Tea Party got elected in. Please don't confuse the two. The Tea Party leaches off the republicans so they don't have to become a new party and fend for themselves.
$3720 subsidy per passenger seems a tad on the high side. Not much bang for the buck. Go for it Joe!
Heck and Hell are undermining the State of Nevada, killing tourism and construction jobs. Time for these radical teabags to resign.
End the subsidie, its a waste of money! It would be cheeper to pay a bus company the cost of two airplane tickets plus subsidie to provide twice a day service to Ely. America is broke, we are borrowing 40 cents of every dollar we spend! As for the union workers and the preveling wages they earn that increase construction costs to us tax payers, I say go stuff it. Hey Chandler this story is about airports not Medicare, you read the wrong fax from the DNC.
It has a blind spot? "It has a blind spot!!!" really, why????
The County "cash cow" bringing in 30 million passengers annually, how much per head coming and going and it can't take care of the problem on it's own? Could it be, we need to cut some of the salaries and jobs out there too? Been here 40 years and watched this, what could have been the "airport of the future" become the "nightmare" of Las Vegas.
How sad, they can't even install lights on a runway. Can you say "big government"?
I love the airport at Ely. I didn't get the $3750 for each of the 4 of us that flew into there privately. Where is my check? I checked out the Grand Canyon that day before I left for Ely. Oh yes, there is still a big crack in this area of dirt and rock as well, called the Grand Canyon.
That's my Congressman (Heck).
In order to fix American, the GOP plan is to destroy everything, so that the privileged few can thrive.
The only problem is that now Congressman Heck is not only spitting on his constituents and denying them jobs, but he's also going to make it hard for Las Vegas to get tourists in here.
Way to go. I never voted for that clown. And I can't wait to vote him out. Bring on the 2012 elections.
Why aren't fellow-teabags Heck and Hell on the same page here?
Could it be because antigovernment GOP drama queens such as Hell are just like every other representative when it comes to protecting their constituents fat-laden pork?
Look up the word 'hypocrisy' in the dictionary and you'll see a picture of the republican caucus.
All those Teabaggers in the sticks are getting just what they deserve!
Heck, we won't need that runway, or that control tower, after we get through defaulting on our debt, we won't have enough disposable income in the U.S. to support a gaming industry more than half of its current size. And we sure won't have enough money to spend on State Department operations so that we could issue Visas to foreigners who would spend their gambling here, either.
As to subsidizing air service to Ely: let them drive to Salt Lake. After all, we in Nevada don't need the revenues from their shopping trips, doctor visits, etc. that they would have spent here, nor do we here need the revenues generated by folks from elsewhere going to and from the mines within driving distance of Ely's airport. Do we? (Mining is one Nevada industry that is actually expanding and thriving, so let's put stumbling blocks in its way because that is what the party-first ideology requires the folks of that party to do or else be branded as RINOs.)
So if the democrats would support cutting the $3,720 per passenger in government subsidies to $1,000 then work at McCarran could continue?
$3,720 PER PASSENGER?
And it's the republicans getting blamed for trying to cut this waste?
Why the hell is there a subsidy to begin with?
McCarren nedds a new operating staff anyway. They continue to allow illegal activities to occur there. Just try walking thru there...hey buddy you need a limo...i have one downstairs...cheap. McCarren is getting as bad as the Strip, when do the costumed characters show up?
There is a subsidy because when we deregulated the airline industry, rural areas lost all service. (Surprise! For profit companies want to make profit, so they will cut low traffic routes to concentrate on the high traffic routes. Everyone professed shock at this result.) All the folks who voted for "deregulation" could not go back home and face their constituents who suddenly found themselves cut off from air service. So we pay airlines -- usually small commuter lines -- to provide some level of service.
As to the cost per passenger: Often this is an exercise in how to lie with statistics. Typically, an airline that wants to drop a route and put its' planes and people on a more lucrative one, will shift its' flight schedules so that the flights go to somewhere no one really wants to go and/or at times no one really wants to travel, and then say: "it makes no sense to fly to this place. Look how much it costs per passenger." This usually works because people love "snapshots." Remember the "Bridge To Nowhere"? (The proposed bridge was to link Ketchikan with its airport.)
Now, we may conclude that the funding for a particular thing may not be worthwhile, but shouldn't that have occurred in the Budget process rather than the funding the Budget process? The same Congress that authorized this expenditure in the Budget process is now refusing to fund the very expenditures it previously authorized. (As a matter of fact, the same Congress that is now refusing to authorize an increase in the debt limit, passed a Budget which authorized the government to spend $1 Trillion more than it would take in as revenue.) This is throwing the baby out with the bathwater and then blaming others for the injuries to the baby.
Alternatively, we subsidize corporate jets. A new Gulfstream runs about $15 Million, and depending on configuration can carry up to 19 passengers. The capital cost alone is just under $800K per seat. The marginal corporate tax rate is 35%, so that is about $28K in tax subsidy per passenger. The tax subsidy on cost per seat -- excluding operations (also tax subsidized) -- would depend on usage.
Leric, I don't believe the role of government should include these subsidies. I am glad this information is being made public.
If I am understanding you correctly your $800K per seat would be the cost per passenger of a 19 seat plane and if the plane only flew once with all 19 passengers aboard?
I have to ask, since deregulation and rural area lost local air service, why are the taxpayers responsible to subsidize this?
It's wastefulness such as this that the mid-term elections went strongly to the republicans. They are now doing what they were sent to Washington to do.
At this point we should all rise up as one, democrats and republicans alike and recall all the useless bastards out of office and just start over.
You could get the kids on that gameshow thats hosted by Jeff Foxworthy to do a better job. They have more common sense, manners, and get along better anyway than the so called "adults," we have running things right now.
They divide the country by party on purpose to keep all of us at each others throats instead of at theirs where our hands should be.
Based on all the divisive comments above, i'd say their strategy is working pretty well.
The Republicans fiddle while the US burns....