Kern paints Dumbo white, calls him green

It was deja vu all over again as the St. Clair County Board decided that they don’t want their fingerprints on any decisions related to the finances of MidAmerica St. Louis Airport. Didn’t want it Monday night. Didn’t want it in February. Didn’t want it in 2013.

Board members currently can deny responsibility for airport operations, which audits show require a county subsidy every year to keep it flying. Taxpayers dumped $7.5 million into MidAmerica in 2014, and a grand total of $55.5 million just since 2006.

But Chairman Mark Kern is claiming some kind of financial wizardry will drop the deficit to only $2 million this year.

Let’s say they manage to “only” lose $2 million, shouldn’t the voters get some say about who is making the decisions that cost everyone better law enforcement, a wider Frank Scott Parkway, more parks and higher property taxes? Kern’s political appointees on the Public Building Commission make decisions about the airport, not the County Board.

“Every day we operate, we’re getting closer to breaking even at that airport,” Kern said. “To put politics and micromanagement in that would be a mistake, largely as a result of an election coming up in November.”

For the moment let’s put aside the arrogance of dismissing as election politics the taxpayers’ concerns about having a voice in their government. Does Kern expect folks to believe there are no politics with a bunch of his appointees running things?

“I find it interesting, politics is not a part of the Public Building Commission,” said County Board member Ed Cockrell, a Republican from New Athens who supported the move. “What we have been trying to do is give some direct authority, back to this county board … The facts are, the taxpayers have little or no say about the airport.”

“At some point, the taxpayers of St. Clair County, are the only ones responsible for the debt there,” Cockrell said.

Weigh Kern’s comments and his support of the status quo against Cockrell’s comments and the push for a vote on contracts of more than $30,000. Which rings true and which sounds like politics.

If county taxpayers want control of MidAmerica’s expenditures they will need to change five faces or change five minds on the County Board to give this issue a majority. Here are 16 folks, all Democrats, who voted Monday against taking on the responsibility: Robert Allen, Michael Baker, June Chartrand, Carol Clark, Marty Crawford, Jerry Dinges, Ken Easterley, Angela Grossmann-Roewe, Lorraine Haywood, Curtis Jones, Joan McIntosh, Lonnie Mosley, Roy Mosley Jr., Dixie Seibert, Bob Trentman and Richard Vernier.

This story was originally published July 27, 2016 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Kern paints Dumbo white, calls him green."