For years, critics of wasteful government spending have protested that politicians hire consultants not so much to study problems and assess the costs and benefits of solutions as to “prove” in advance that a project should be built.
But until Gov. Edgar’s State of the State speech last Wednesday, no sitting office-holder had ever admitted to spending taxpayers’ money to justify a foregone conclusion. Whether through a Freudian slip, a speech writer’s error or just plain haste to meet a deadline, the governor told the General Assembly:
“So today I am announcing the state will spend $2 million of its own money to begin the necessary studies to prove a new airport in the south suburbs is feasible.” The governor, in other words, already has decided he wants an airport; the consultants are there not to determine whether an airport is needed but to find a way to make people believe it is.
Give the governor an “A” for candor and another “A” for pandering to the suburban real-estate lobby. Give him an “F” in logistics, an “F” in land-use planning and an “F” in environmental preservation for ignoring lower-cost, energy-efficient alternatives that outperform air transportation over distances under 400 miles.