An underused airport near Belleville, Illinois, has required local taxpayers to chip in $119.5 million since 2002 to keep it operating. Even with pandemic money, 2020 was even worse.
Each year St. Clair County taxpayers must add money to keep MidAmerica St. Louis Airport open. COVID-19 could turn a hefty financial burden into an albatross.
Each year St. Clair County, Illinois, taxpayers must add money to keep MidAmerica St. Louis Airport open. While passenger traffic is increasing, so are expenses.
Local leaders say more passengers will reduce the need for taxpayer money at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport. But as traffic rises, so too has the tab for St. Clair County taxpayers.
Illinois finds itself at a crossroads: will it empower minorities and poor people to unleash their potential, or will it perpetuate an inequitable status quo? For far too many Illinoisans, opportunity is unfairly and unnecessarily out of reach. Illinois ranks in the bottom ten among all states in social mobility and last among Midwest states...