Third airport is a waste of state’s money

Gov. Pat Quinn is just amazing — amazingly disconnected from reality that is. I write this after reading the news that he has just approved a plan for the state to acquire the added property needed to build Chicago’s third major airport in Will County. Yes, when you are completely broke, owing hundreds of millions in unpaid bills, being liable for hundreds of millions in unfunded public employee pension liabilities, and unable to provide decent roads, high-quality education, quality mental health services, etc., you just go out and run up more debt by buying land that is unneeded. That’s the governor’s wacky perception of prudent management of the public purse.

In addition to making a grossly irresponsible commitment of precious state funds, Gov. Quinn is buying land for an airport that:

1) the major airlines do not want or need.

2) will not draw the jobs that the governor asserts that it will. (With much to high taxes, over-the-top business regulation, employee unions dominating public policy, lousy big-city educational systems, a failure to engage in tort reform, and world-class public corruption, no new businesses will come to Illinois or without a third airport.)

3) will chew up valuable and very productive farmland that our nation will need more than added paved runways as our population increases unchecked.

It would be far more cost-effective and sensible to think of extant airports in Gary, Rockford, and Milwaukee as facilities that will meet and future airport expansion needs of the Greater Chicago Area. Those airports are closer than Will County for a large portion of Chicago’s population.

Charles F. Falk

Schaumburg