Behind the mostly polite official statements and dry consulting reports, the most powerful politicians in the Chicago region are locked in a slam-bang fight over the public works plum of the 21st Century here: a third major airport.
It would have been a pretty good tussle even if Mayor Richard Daley hadn`t jumped into the ring in February with his proposed Chicago site at Lake Calumet. Until then it had been a two-way tug between Illinois and Indiana.
Two years ago an officially sponsored consultant`s study narrowed the location choices to four, three of them beyond the south suburban sprawl in rural Illinois and the fourth at Gary, where a small municipal airport might be upgraded.
Back then, city officials were still worried about the impact on O`Hare and were arguing that the region didn`t need a third jetport.
Now Chicago is in, and the competition has broadened into a multi-sided affair that pits city Democrats against suburban Republicans, Chicago Democrats against Gary Democrats, and as before, Illinois politicians of both stripes against their counterparts in Indiana.
There are other factions, such as families in Chicago and Gary who understandably don`t want to be moved to make way for an airport. And there are the quality-of-lifers in sleepy Will County burgs like Peotone and Eagle Lake, where residents suddenly find themselves in proposed glide-paths.
Those voices will grow louder once the final site is chosen. For now, the big hitters are doing most of the pushing and pulling.
”Like a lot of things, this is about money and politics,” said Thomas Kapsalis, the city`s former commissioner of aviation who now runs an airport consulting firm.
He might have understated things a bit.
According to KPMG Peat Marwick, the consulting firm that identified the sites worthy of further consideration, a second O`Hare-sized airport would cost at least $2 billion to build (in 1988 dollars), create as many as 120,000 jobs and pump as much as $5.6 billion into the surrounding economy.
That prospect has mesmerized south suburban politicians and business boosters. For 20 years they have stood on the sidelines watching O`Hare shower Chicago and the northwest suburbs with enormous wealth in the form of private investment and the tax dollars that follow. One study determined that O`Hare spins more than $10 billion a year into surrounding economies.
And there is the political gold: the millions of dollars in professional fees, commissions, construction and vending contracts that can be doled out to firms that, in return, underwrite expensive television-based political campaigns. For instance, the city recently sold, with virtually no public fanfare, a $489.7 million bond issue to pay for the new International Terminal at O`Hare. That single transaction infused the law firms and bonding houses chosen to handle the sale with $8.3 million in fees.
One could argue that a third airport, by itself, would generate enough political capital over the next 20 years to support a mayor or governor for an entire political career.
Then there are the merits. A fair case can be made for each of the five sites under consideration.
Lake Calumet is closest to the Loop and offers a chance to redevelop a wasteland of garbage heaps and closed factories. The Gary site would also double as an urban renewal project. The two ”greenfield” sites in eastern Will County offer ample farmland that could be bought cheaply, as does the more distant tract in Kankakee County.
But each also has its demerits.
Both Lake Calumet and Gary would require the displacement of thousands of homes and the disruption of ecologically sensitive wetlands. Consequently they would be more expensive to build. Some argue, moreover, that the two urban sites are too close to air traffic corridors leading to O`Hare. And selection of either could mean an end to commercial aviation at Midway.
The three ”greenfield” sites would be cheaper to buy and develop. But their distances from downtown Chicago-from 30 to 40 miles-will surely make them less attractive to passengers and, importantly, tenant airlines. Airline rents, after all, will have to pay the lion`s share of the airport`s construction and operating costs.
Some of the sites have advantages not mentioned in consulting reports.
Chicago appears to hold several of the high cards needed to win. The city has money, or at least it could get money if Congress passes a bill authorizing cities to impose a $3-per-passenger fee to upgrade their airports. Applied at O`Hare and Midway, the new tax could raise $90 million a year, or enough to float a billion-dollar bond issue sufficient for engineering studies, site acquisition and preparation, and even relocation benefits.
But one trump card is missing-the Republicans, the party of Gov. James Thompson and most south suburban officials, control the White House, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Federal Aviation Administration. Without federal approval, there will be no third airport.
Thompson has not indicated his preference, but bellwethers like Lt. Gov. George Ryan are beginning to rally around Kankakee, Ryan`s home turf. The GOP leaders seem little disposed to share the wealth with Chicago or Indiana.
”The whole thing is obviously very parochial,” said U.S. Rep. George Sangmeister (D-Ill.), a Will County politician working to line up support for Kankakee while opposing Chicago`s bid for the boarding tax.
In Indiana, the Gary effort recently stumbled when Gov. Evan Bayh expressed misgivings about moving 12,000 homes to make that site work. Mayor Thomas Barnes charged betrayal, but despite those intramural arguments, Gary cannot be counted out as long as its supporters include Vice President Dan Quayle.
All of which means a standoff is likely, unless one of the players forges a winning coalition.
Daley is trying to increase Chicago`s representation on the Bi-State Committee, the panel of eight officials-four from Illinois and four from Indiana-that is to pick the winning site. Currently, the city`s only seat belongs to Jay Franke, city commissioner of aviation.
Some political analysts predict the two Illinois factions-city and suburban-will try to forge an alliance with their Indiana counterparts.
Illinois Republicans, for instance, might have to forsake Kankakee in favor of the so-called bi-state site, whose location along the state line in eastern Will County would give Indiana a piece of the action.
Chicago Democrats, meanwhile, are rumored to be pitching Indiana on benefits that would accrue from a grand eastern gateway to a Southeast Side airport.
Observed Kapsalis: ”A lot of the development from Lake Calumet would naturally go to Indiana, where taxes are lower. They`d be getting 30 percent of the growth and none of the grief.”
But with favorite son Samuel Skinner in charge of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Illinois Republicans might still be able to block a Chicago-Gary compromise. In which case Daley might be forced to deal them into the game by ceding control of O`Hare to a new city-state airport authority. That seems a high price, but Daley may have no choice if he really wants Lake Calumet.
All sides, meanwhile, will try to pump airline executives for endorsements of their favored sites. And they will be watching to see if November`s gubernatorial election tips the balance.
As the political jockeying goes on, another consulting firm, TAMS Inc., will be sifting through the merits.(
Next: Who pays, who uses, who benefits.
