When it comes to stopping commercial air service from coming to Paine Field, some Mukilteo city officials are preparing to fight money with money.
They plan to set aside $250,000 in the city’s budget for “research, studies, or if we need to undertake any sort of legal action, that sort of thing,” City Councilman Marko Liias said.
A business group, the Private Enterprise Coalition of Snohomish County, announced a month ago it would spend $100,000 in the next year or so to promote commercial service at the airport.
Passenger flights at the county-run airport are not imminent, but the idea is being advocated by businesspeople and others as a way to enhance the county’s economy and give passengers an alternative to increasingly crowded Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
“It’s probably the most significant issue for the city,” City Council President Jennifer Gregerson said. “The council has continually confirmed its opposition to regional expansion.”
Many in Mukilteo believe noise from passenger traffic would harm their neighborhoods and property values.
Some of the Private Enterprise Coalition’s money is going to a study of whether passenger flights would bring jobs to the area. That study is scheduled to be done at the end of this month.
Liias said the business group’s plan motivated him to push for the airport “emergency fund.”
“I was already thinking about it and this kind of spurred me to action,” he said.
The City Council could vote on the proposal as early as next month, Gregerson said.
The money could come either from the city’s $5 million reserve or be set aside in pieces, she said. The former is the more likely, Gregerson said.
The city has also tentatively budgeted $25,000 to give to Save Our Communities, a Mukilteo-based anti-expansion group, for education and outreach. That allocation could be approved in May as well, Gregerson said.
The group would likely use the money for fliers, brochures and improving its Web site, president Greg Hauth said.
Hauth applauded the plans for an emergency fund.
“What it does is put some teeth into what (the city) has said all along, that the threat of commercial air service at Paine Field is their top issue,” he said.
Greg Tisdel of the Private Enterprise Coalition said Mukilteo’s plans don’t worry the business group.
“No real amount of money is going to stop this,” he said of commercial flights.
“Our issue is not about what SOC (Save Our Communities) is doing or Mukilteo’s doing,” Tisdel said.
In addition to passenger flights, the group is pushing for a four-year college in Snohomish County and passage of the regional transportation tax planned for the ballot in November, he said.
Along with the Private Enterprise Coalition, the county Republican Party and Everett Chamber of Commerce have stated their support for passenger service.
In addition to Mukilteo, the city councils of Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace and Woodway have voted to oppose commercial flights at Paine Field.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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