City on Senate’s airport-takeover study: ‘If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it’

• Joeff Davis/CL File
• ‘Not this takeover crap again.’

Every few years, it seems, someone at the Gold Dome murmurs something about how the state should run Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The reasons vary for the takeover. It’s the economic engine of metro Atlanta and arguably the state, and therefore state officials should operate this precious resource. The state could manage it better than the city officials who built it from a former racetrack into the world’s busiest airport.

But these proposals have never gone much farther than anteroom conversations or brainstorming over drinks. Because they’re kind of ridiculous.

As my trusted attorney Max Blau noted this morning, state Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, has introduced legislation calling for the Senate to spend the summer studying the airport takeover idea and reviewing the state’s tax breaks.

“It’s always been operated by the city of Atlanta,” he told the Macon Telegraph’s Maggie Lee. “We need to look at a mechanism, I think, similar to what we do with the World Congress Center Authority as well as the Georgia Ports Authority.”

More than 20 senators have already signed on, Lee says.

Mayor Kasim Reed is surely rejoicing at the thought of spending his summer days talking about a pie-in-the-sky idea that will probably not result in any actual legislation. Spokeswoman Jenna Garland responds to the proposal in a statement:

For 17 years, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has been the world’s busiest passenger airport. Hartsfield-Jackson is the most efficient airport in the world and the most successful in the United States, with a direct economic impact of $34.8 billion in metro Atlanta and a total direct economic impact of $70.9 billion in Georgia.

The City of Atlanta has demonstrated its leadership ability and Hartsfield-Jackson has never been more successful than it is right now. We believe that, as the saying goes, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.

Despite these facts, the City respects the legislative process and looks forward to contributing to the work of the study committee.

So do we, Ms. Garland. So do we.