Waste of the Day: Throwback Thursday- Flightless Airport Got Funding

Topline: In 2012, there was little reason not to close the Lake Murray State Park Airport in Oklahoma. There were no planes stored at the airport, and it averaged only one flight per month.

Officials kept an airport open just to score gravy from the FAA

But by keeping the airport open, local officials were able to collect an annual $150,000 check from the Federal Aviation Administration. The airport collected $750,000 from 2008 to 2012, but less than $6,000 was used at the airport itself. Most of the cash was dispersed to other projects around the state.

That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses. 

Coburn, the legendary U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname “Dr. No” by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. Projects that he couldn’t stop, Coburn included in his oversight reports.   

Coburn’s Wastebook 2012 included 100 examples of outrageous spending worth more than $18 billion, including Oklahoma’s pseudo-airport. 

The airport’s $750,000 checks would be worth $1.1 million in today’s money.

Key facts: Oklahoma’s tourism department first recommended closing the Lake Murray airport in 2006 because it was blocking access to a nearby state park and golf course. 

The director of the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission agreed, but the rest of the Commission refused. Members were too worried about losing the annual $150,000 federal check, according to reporting from The Oklahoman.

Why did the cash keep flowing?

The cash kept flowing because smaller airports are legally entitled to annual funding under the federal Airport Improvement Program, but it wasn’t needed at Lake Murray. Oklahoma sent $300,000 of Lake Murray’s funding to two other airports that were actually functional, and the commission kept a stockpile of $450,000 that was still unused as of 2012.

Nearly $200,000 of the grant money was meant specifically to pay for new pavement and lighting on Lake Murray’s runway. It was not used for that purpose. In 2012, The Oklahoman reported that the runway had no electricity, and its pavement was “nearing the end of its useful life.”

The Commission had a change of heart in 2013 and voted unanimously to close the airport, knowing it would mean returning $184,000 of funding. But at that point, huge amounts of cash had already been spent on projects never approved by the federal government.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Summary: Airplanes and scheduled flights should be the two most basic necessities for an airport to receive federal funding.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.