Senate says abolish airport panel
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A state panel that has spent 16 years trying to build a sprawling airport near Donaldsonville would be abolished under a bill that won Louisiana Senate approval 36-0 on Wednesday.
“While I am for the project, if you can’t put it together in 16 years, it is time to walk away,” said Sen. Butch Gautreaux, D-Morgan City and a bill backer.
The measure, Senate Bill 212, next faces action in the House.
The panel under fire is the Louisiana Airport Authority, or LAA. It is a 27-member board that is trying to muster support for a $4.4 billion airport with links to water, rail and highways.
The 25,000-acre site would span parts of Iberville, Ascension and Assumption parishes.
SB212 would abolish the LAA and move its records to the state Department of Economic Development by Jan. 1.
Glenda Jeansonne, executive director of the LAA, criticized the Senate vote.
“It is just unbelievable,” Jeansonne said in a telephone interview moments after the vote.
Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Grosse Tete and sponsor of the bill, said the transfer would pave the way for an independent study on whether the airport is feasible.
The senator and other critics contend that previous, optimistic studies of the airport have been done by groups with an interest in its success.
Marionneaux told the Senate that while Gov. Bobby Jindal declined to take a stance on the legislation, the governor also favors an independent look. “He wants to know if it is realistic, whether it can be sustained,” Marionneaux said of the airport.
He also criticized LAA spending on operating expenses, feasibility studies and other costs since 1992.
“We have spent more than $7 million with no answer,” Marionneaux said.
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