LAX Expansion: ‘Public Will Pay’

* Re “Mayoral Hopefuls Keep Their Distance From LAX Expansion,” March 1: Describing the $12-billion LAX expansion plan as “funded by the airline industry” dangerously misleads the public. The truth is that the public will pay for the expansion through a quasi-tax known as the passenger facility charge. Every time you fly in or out of LAX, you pay a $3 passenger facility charge that is added to your ticket price. Each airport decides what this tax will be, subject to FAA approval. These are the funds used to pay for airport construction projects.

Since about 65 million passengers used LAX last year, this tax generated about $195 million. The airport commission has already requested and received approval from the FAA to increase the tax to $4.50 per ticket. At current levels of airport use, the increased tax burden on all of us who use LAX will amount to $97.5 million, a huge tax increase by any measure. If LAX usage is allowed to increase to 90 million passengers per year, as proposed by Mayor Richard Riordan, the total amount of airport tax collected from the public will reach $405 million per year. This is the money that will be used to pay for the proposed $12-billion expansion plan.

RUTH GALANTER

President Pro Tempore

Los Angeles City Council

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Many years ago land was purchased for the express purpose of eventually building a commercial airport in Palmdale to meet the needs of population growth in Southern California. That land is still sitting--Palmdale and surrounding communities would welcome this sort of growth. There is so much opposition to the expansion of LAX, John Wayne and El Toro airports.

Doesn’t it make sense both economically and politically to use what we have without any opposition and concentrate instead on a rapid transit system into L.A. from Palmdale?

BETTY FINEMAN

Las Flores