EAS targeted for cuts

Twelve times a week, McCook residents hear the roar of a turboprop airliner operated by Great Lakes as it drops into McCook Ben Nelson Regional Airport and picks up passengers for flights to destinations around the world.

If Sen. John McCain and a group of conservative lawmakers in the House have their way, the Southwest Nebraska skies will be quieter.

That's because they are proposing elimination of the Essential Air Service program that subsidizes airlines to serve small airports like McCook.

As of June 1, 2010, the program paid as much as $5,223 per passenger in Ely, Nevada, and as little as $9.21 per passenger in Thief River Falls, Minnesota.

We don't know the current level -- it would be in the $3,000 per passenger range using 2006 emplanement numbers -- but an order issued last June pays the airline $1.796 million a year to serve McCook, or $1,464 per eligible flight or a maximum of $35,000 a week.

Opponents want to eliminate the $200 million for the program as they scramble to find ways to reduce the federal deficit. Supporters such as the airport's namesake, Sen. Ben Nelson, plus Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Robert Casey of Pennsylvania and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, are circulating a letter urging McCain to give up the effort to kill the program because of the economic consequences it could have.

"Eliminating the program will have a devastating impact on th economies of rural communities," the letter said.

"At a moment when the nation's economic recovery is starting to gain momentum, it makes little sense to reduce personal and business travel volume by cutting off residents of rural areas," the letter continues. "And at a time when jobs are already so hard to come by in our rural communities, it makes even less sense to enact cuts that will only make the problem worse."

Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia is one of EAS's biggest supporters the main sponsor of the pending aviation bill which would increase rather than decrease funding and give the Transportation Department more flexibility in structuring contracts with airlines to improve it, including adjusting contracts to take fuel costs into account.

Southwest Nebraskans want to see the federal deficit reduced as much as anyone, and $200 million would be a small step toward that goal. But are we willing to give up service that may be essential to retaining and attracting industries vital to our economic future?

Let our senators and congressmen know.