Quayle Here With a Legitimate Issue: the Sale of LAX

I was just about the only reporter at lunch who didn’t ask Dan Quayle about Murphy Brown.

Actually, I’ve never seen the show. My wife, Nancy, watched Murphy Brown once, but didn’t like it very much.

That, however, is not why I didn’t join the hot pursuit after the Murphy Brown story at our reporters’ group luncheon Wednesday at the Sheraton-West. I, as a local columnist, had a weightier task.

The vice president, in addition to being an expert on single motherhood, is also involved in a most important and controversial local issue. That’s the debate over selling or leasing Los Angeles International Airport to raise money for the near-empty city treasury. So I asked about the airport.

The idea has been floating around for well over a year. But it moved up in importance when people in the Bush Administration started talking up the idea. The Bush team seemed to think that revenue from an airport sale might be used to aid riot recovery. The reason the feds are involved is because they helped finance airport facilities. Being Washington, Washington placed many restrictions on revenues earned from them.

Quayle met with Mayor Tom Bradley and recovery czar Peter Ueberroth Wednesday morning and said the Administration was not pushing for an airport sale. “I told the mayor that it is your decision,” Quayle said. “If you privatize, that’s up to you. If you lease, that’s up to you. If you leave it alone, that’s up to you. I have never recommended that LAX be privatized.” He said it was merely “an option to be considered.”

Although I don’t like many of Quayle’s ideas, this one has a certain logic. The city administrative office estimated the airport would be worth more than $2 billion if put on the market. Another study estimated that this money, if conservatively invested, could earn at least $140 million a year.

Even before the heavy destruction that followed the King beating verdict, the city faced a deficit of $183 million next year. With many businesses closed by burning and looting, sales tax revenues may drop, reducing revenue even more.

The plan to sell the airport has fascinating roots.

It originated in the Santa Monica headquarters of the Reason Foundation, a conservative think tank which has been pushing the idea of “privatization.” This means having private enterprise perform work now done by government. It is supposed to be cheaper because private firms cut costs to win government contracts, and generally pay their employees less than government pays public workers.

Privatization has a bad name around here, mainly because of the experiences of Los Angeles County government. The county, in a mad rush to save money, turned over the repair of its motor vehicles to a private company. Initially, the cars and trucks performed as if they had been in a third-rate garage. Performance improved later, but the episode is cited by opponents as an argument against privatization.

The Reason Foundation was undeterred, and its theories have become increasingly acceptable among even liberal political leaders facing budget deficits.

When the foundation came up with its proposal to sell LAX, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus, a Democrat, offered it to balance last year’s budget. The proposal was quickly shot down by her colleagues.

But the plan got a much friendlier reception in Washington, where it attracted the attention of the Council on Competitiveness, headed by Quayle.

In an Administration that usually seems unfocused on domestic affairs, Quayle and the council are the bedrock of solid conservative thought. To the council, selling LAX made a certain amount of sense. So when Quayle discussed the plan with Bradley, he wasn’t merely floating it off the top of his head.

In June, the Board of Airport Commissioners will receive an analysis of the sale idea. Even before the report comes in, there is general agreement that the airport, operating at a profit, should turn over more of its revenue to the city for use in providing police officers, firefighters and other city services.

At present, federal law makes this difficult. Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who represents the airport area, has asked Washington to ease its restrictions. Quayle said the Administration is considering ways of making this possible.

Picus still wants to sell or lease. “It doesn’t make any sense at all to be holding such rich assets and cutting back on services,” she said.

The discussion shows there is a growing feeling among liberals and conservatives that these difficult times are requiring government to search every corner for money, even LAX.

That is why, in the long run, Quayle’s thoughts on the airport may be more important than his harsh judgment of Murphy Brown.