Marks: The importance of passing 1A

As you consider your vote for Ballot Question 1A, I wish voters to understand that the proceeds from the Airport’s revenue bonds will fund the things we all agree must be replaced or improved. These include: a new, right-sized, green commercial air terminal; enhanced and enlarged parking areas for passengers and airport employees; tall, acoustic-mitigating, landscaped berms to reduce airfield noise affecting our neighbors across Highway 82; and a convenient, multimodal, ground transportation hub designed to alleviate private vehicular traffic in the upper valley.

By law, these improvements cannot be funded by new taxes. Therefore, the debt service on the Airport’s bonds will be financed solely from the new FBO lease, passenger facility fees, and concession revenues. 

According to preliminary estimates, these improvements cost $306 million. They will not be funded by the FAA, whose financial mission is to fund the airfield. Hence, the importance of passing Ballot Question 1A.

I am writing this letter to the editor as a private citizen. In doing so, however, I wish to share my knowledge as a member of the County’s Financial Advisory Board and the city of Aspen’s representative on the Airport Advisory Board, as well as the Co-Chair of ASE’s Multimodal Ground Transportation Task Force.

Evan Marks

Aspen