Editorial: Airport one big reason for care on annexation

Even during a stagnant economy – no, especially during a stagnant economy – a community like Spokane needs to lay plans for economic growth and development.

And one of the area’s most important assets in that regard is Spokane International Airport, which finds itself in the middle of a significant and complicated annexation plan involving the cities of Spokane and Airway Heights, as well as Fire District 10. And, of course, Spokane County.

A well-run airport plays a critical role in a community’s prosperity. It determines how conveniently tourists, convention-goers and business travelers can come and go, and in Spokane’s case it is a vital partner in the growth of aerospace business that has made impressive gains of late.

On the table at present is a plan under which Spokane would annex some 10 square miles of the West Plains, including the airport. It would be the largest single annexation in the city’s history and it would boost property tax collections for the city by more than $1 million a year. Airway Heights, meanwhile, would add a parcel that includes the lucrative sales tax receipts from the West Plains Wal-Mart store.

But where there are winners, there usually are losers, and realignments of this magnitude can’t help but touch off unpredictable ripples.

For example, Spokane County’s dire tax base difficulties would only get worse, and a weakened county would be a drag on the overall region’s well-being.

Fire District 10 would need to be made whole from the erosion of its tax base.

And the Airport Board – a city-county combine that has administered the facility ably since 1962 – has reason to be nervous about the impact such a move could have on its operating costs.

The airport receives no state or local tax revenues. It operates on the rental fees from its commercial and industrial property and on landing fees charged to airlines that operate here. Failure to keep those charges as low as possible risks the loss of tenants and the isolation that follows if airline connections go away.

If, for instance, annexation by the city of Spokane leads to the specialized airport fire department’s employees being absorbed by city firefighters’ highly paid union, the Airport Board would face rising costs with minimal recourse to offset them. Although city officials are saying that won’t happen, it’s easy to understand the Airport Board’s anxiety.

In some ways, the cooperation with which the respective municipal governments have approached annexation talks has been encouraging. But during the months those talks have been under way, the Airport Board has been left curiously out of the loop.

And despite a months-old request for a feasibility study to determine if this is all going to work, it is yet to make an appearance. The annexation effort forges on, however.

If “feasibility” means what we think it does, the priorities seem to be out of order. For the health of the city, annexation of developed West Plains land, including the airport, makes intuitive sense. Given what all is at stake, though, intuition isn’t enough. Completion of a thorough feasibility study should precede final action on this annexation.