Page 42 - Planning and Design of Airports

20 Airp o r t Pl anning

2. Such a system should be regarded, under certain conditions,
as a proper object of federal expenditure.
3. In passing upon applications for federal expenditure on air-
port development or improvement, the highest preference
should be given to airports which are important to the main-
tenance of safe and efficient operation of air transportation
along the major trade routes of the nation; and to those ren-
dering special service to the national defense.
4. At such times as the national policy includes the making of
grants to local units of government for public-works purposes,
or any work-relief activity, a proportion of the funds involved
should be allocated to airport purposes. Such purposes should
be given preference as rendering an important service to the
localities concerned and at the same time being of particular
importance to the nation’s commerce and defense.
5. Whenever emergency public-works programs may be termi-
nated, or when such programs may be curtailed to a degree not
enabling adequate airport development to continue, or when
the Congress for other reasons may determine federal assis-
tance for airports should be continued through annual appro-
priations for that purpose, based upon annual reports which
should include a review of the general status of the nation’s
airport system and of the work recently done or currently in
course of being done, and recommendations for future work in
the interest of developing and maintaining a system adequate
to national needs, expenditures at these periods should be lim-
ited to projects of exceptional national interest.
6. In connection with such public-works or work-relief pro-
grams as normally involve joint contributions by the federal
government and by local government, there should be a
provision of supplementary funds to enable the federal
government to increase its share of the total expense, in
any proportion justified by the importance of the project.
7. All applications for federal airport grants from such a supple-
mentary appropriation should be presented through agencies
of state government.
8. In deciding upon the wisdom and propriety of granting any
such applications, and the priority that should be given to them,
consideration should be given to the aeronautical policy of the
state in question, with reference to such matters as the state’s
policy in protecting the approaches to airports; the state’s policy
in respect to the employment of any taxes collected on the fuel
used in aircraft; and any measures taken by the state to insure
the proper maintenance of airports and the maintenance of rea-
sonable charges for the services given them.