MidAmerica St. Louis Airport has been a drain on taxpayers since it opened in 1995, requiring money from other county funds to keep it open. That total jumped last year to $14.83 million, bringing total subsidies since 2002 to $160 million.
St. Clair County taxpayers saw a big leap in what county leaders put towards MidAmerica St. Louis Airport to keep it open during 2024, according to a new audit.
The funds taken from other county operations hit $14.83 million, up from $10.85 million in 2023 – a 73% hike in just a year.
That brings the grand total since 2002 to $160 million in transfers from other county funds to fill the airport’s deficits.
Airport operations cost nearly $5 million more last year than in 2023, increasing to $22.54 million. Passenger service remained steady, auditors stated.
The airport in the Illinois portion of the St. Louis metropolitan area is being expanded, with 42,000 square feet being added to the terminal and the MetroLink light rail system being extended to it from nearby Scott Air Force Base. Federal taxes are funding the terminal expansion.
Illinois is investing $98 million in the light rail extension – which reportedly resulted from a one-paragraph request by the county to Gov. J.B. Pritzker after federal authorities for years refused to fund it over concerns there was not enough traffic to the airport. When completed, MetroLink passengers will be able to travel between Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and MidAmerica Airport, but how many will do so remains a question.
Passenger traffic was up 3.5% in 2024 to 152,632 enplanements, but down from 2022 and 2021 when it exceeded 160,000 enplanements each year. It had dropped to about 108,000 during the pandemic.
MidAmerica won’t fully pay off its construction debt until 2045 because St. Clair County leaders in 2015 refinanced the remaining $40 million and stretched out repayment. That move more than doubled taxpayers’ debt burden to $88 million.
The airport was built for $300 million in 1995 to provide passenger and cargo service as well as serve neighboring Scott Air Force Base with a longer runway than the parallel base runway. It also has cargo operations, a corporate jet renovation and maintenance business and a Boeing production facility.
Allegiant Air is the sole passenger airline operating at the airport on the outskirts of Belleville, Illinois. It currently offers 12 destinations.
Resources flowing to a project unable to exist without drawing nearly $15 million from other county needs should concern St. Clair County homeowners. They should also ask how bailing out the airport is affecting their property taxes and home values, especially the value of a rural home where they rarely see a sheriff’s deputy on patrol because that money is keeping an airport staffed.
Shortly after the airport opened in 1997, it was the subject of a segment on NBC News’ “The Fleecing of America.” NBC returned in 2010 and again in 2015 to find the airport in sad shape.
In the 30 years since it was built, the airport has suffered a string of failed passenger carriers and unsuccessful attempts to build its cargo business, earning monikers such as the “Gateway to Nowhere.” It appears to have adopted the “Field of Dreams” development philosophy, but more and more is being added at taxpayers’ expense to get them to come to it.
The question remains: “Why can’t MidAmerica Airport exist without taxpayers bailing it out every year?” After 30 years and over $160 million in subsidies, taxpayers should push MidAmerica from the nest.
