After residents raised concerns about using sales tax dollars to improve the McKinney National Airport, McKinney City Council indefinitely tabled the resolution responsible for directing the city manager to seek funding.
The resolution instructed the city manager to seek improvement funding from the McKinney Community Development Corporation (MCDC) and the McKinney Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). Both organizations are funded by a half-cent sales tax paid by residents.
The planned project includes building the required infrastructure to make the airport’s east side usable, such as a parallel aircraft taxiway and a vehicle access roadway.
The tabled resolution comes in the wake of voters striking down a $200 million general bond obligation to fund a new commercial passenger service terminal. The Texas Local Government Code forbids using certificates of obligation or any debt backed by property taxes for purposes already put to a vote in the past three years.
The city leaders say the airport expansion will proceed with or without the commercial service.
“We need to move forward with some of the core infrastructure because nothing is possible over there without it. It’s either that or stop growing because we’re running out of land,” said the airport’s director, Ken Carley.
City leaders say developing projects on the east side of the airport is critical for future growth, given the west side is approaching capacity.
“I’m trying to basically avoid a gap where we run out of land on the west side, but we don’t have land ready to go on the east side,” Carley said.
“We moved here because we wanted to get away from Los Angeles and LAX, so we weren’t expecting that we were going to have to deal with an airport issue here,” said Sue Silver, a resident of McKinney, during a January 2 city council meeting.