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Council Raises Love Landing Fee: Miller Meets With Hutchison on Wright Amendment

Posted on: Thursday, 23 February 2006, 00:00 CST

By Emily Ramshaw, The Dallas Morning News

Feb. 23--Dallas City Council members raised landing fees at Love Field by 57 percent Wednesday, shutting down a substitute motion that would have quadrupled the fees.

The move came the same day Mayor Laura Miller lunched privately in her office with U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to discuss Wright amendment flight restrictions at Love. They declined to reveal details of their hourlong meeting.

"We just continued our ongoing discussion about the Wright amendment," Ms. Miller said. "We always have good conversations, and this was no different."

The approved landing fee increase -- from 35 cents to 55 cents per 1,000 pounds -- will go into effect April 1, and bring in another $952,000 to the city annually. The money will be used to offset the airport's $3 million 2006 budget deficit.

Still, for three City Council members, 55 cents wasn't enough. They argued for raising the landing fee to $1.40, which they said is the average landing fee for mid-size airports.

"I find it absolutely astounding, given the fact that over the last six years our airport has run at a deficit between $11 million and $13 million, that we have not raised landing fees for 20 years," council member Angela Hunt said.

In the mid-1980s, Love Field landing fees were 45 cents. In an effort to reduce plane noise, the council offered 35-cent fees for quieter aircraft and penalized louder planes with 55-cent landing fees. By 2000, Federal Aviation Administration officials required all aircraft to meet lower-noise standards.

Council members Mitchell Rasansky and Pauline Medrano joined Ms. Hunt in voting for the $1.40 landing fee.

District 3 representative Ed Oakley, who voted for the 55-cent fee, was the only council member to address the underlying issue: the Wright amendment, the federal law that limits most commercial flights from Love to Texas and eight nearby states. Southwest Airlines Co. wants to lift Wright. American Airlines Inc. opposes any changes to the law.

"The issue of the Wright amendment is something that has to be dealt with," he said. "It is beyond our total control what happens to it."

Ms. Miller said she didn't inform her colleagues about her lunch with Ms. Hutchison -- which was arranged on Monday.

The mayor said she simply "carried in two plates of food" to her private conference room from the council's lunchroom: one for her, one for Ms. Hutchison.

Ms. Hutchison met with Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief last Friday; Ms. Miller said she's set to meet with him today.

While the mayor said there isn't "anything secret" about her meetings, she wouldn't say where or when she's scheduled to visit with Mr. Moncrief.

"Both of the talks were productive," said Chris Paulitz, Ms. Hutchison's spokesman.

"They talked about the Wright amendment along with other local issues. They are continuing to discuss this so that Congress does not intervene without input from the local community geared toward a local solution."

Staff writer Robert Dodge in Washington contributed to this report.

E-mail eramshaw@dallasnews.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Dallas Morning News

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Source: The Dallas Morning News

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