Subsidy

As Congress struggles to find ways to reduce its budget deficit, I have one suggestion that can save American taxpayers as much as $6 billion annually: Eliminate the federal subsidy for corn ethanol.   Today, we provide what is basically corporate welfare to the oil industry for a tax break that the Government Accountability Office says is “largely unneeded.” In introducing the bipartisan Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) Repeal Act, S. 520, with U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)

Ice rink subsidy continued By DAN KULIN / Staff Writer The Hagerstown City Council voted 3-1 Tuesday to continue subsidizing the city ice rink. continued The nonprofit Washington County Sports Foundation, which operates the rink, will receive about $144,000 to cover utility bills and rent payments. Of that, $114,600 had been expected to go toward paying off a $1.2 million city bond used to help build the rink. The council vote also deferred a $20,928 supplemental rent payment, and authorized the foundation to use money left over from last year's utility bill subsidy for general rink expenses.

Speech scorns lack of subsidy By DAN KULIN / Staff Writer Community Rescue Service's interim director may have hurt his chances for a subsidy from the City of Hagerstown with a presentation Wednesday that City Councilman J. Wallace McClure said made the council look like "a bunch of jerks. " continued Speaking before about 130 people at a noon meeting of the Rotary Club of Hagerstown and a Hagerstown Kiwanis Club, CRS Vice President and interim-Director J. Michael Nye predicted a "collapse" of area ambulance service unless the city starts subsidizing CRS. A combination of an increasing number of ambulance calls from city residents who do not pay for ambulance service, a lack of volunteers and other factors has pushed costs above revenues for CRS, Nye said.

HAGERSTOWN daniels@herald-mail.com The Washington County Sports Foundation appears to be operating in the black for the first time since it was founded in 1996, but the nonprofit organization that operates the Hagerstown Ice & Sports Complex remains dependent on the city to help pay its bills. City Finance Director Alfred Martin said for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2005, the city paid the foundation $78,892 toward the cost of the skating rink's utilities, including electricity, water, sewer and gas. Martin said he expects that figure to be about the same or slightly less this year.

HAGERSTOWN - U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin introduced legislation Wednesday to help Hagerstown Regional Airport keep a federal subsidy to provide commercial air service through 2012. The Washington County airport is designated as an Essential Air Service facility, which means it is eligible for the subsidy so it can maintain a minimum level of passenger service. A US Airways Express carrier at the airport receives the $650,000 annual federal subsidy to provide that service.

With the approval of Maryland's legislature, Gov. Martin O'Malley will soon sign into law new state subsidies to lure power companies to build windmill generators off the coast of Ocean City. The legislation will raise electricity bills, but the added cost is supposed to bring more jobs, cleaner air and, in the words of Gov. O'Malley, “a better, more sustainable future for our children.”  Credit the governor and state lawmakers for such high-minded goals. Unfortunately, the chief “green” benefit from the proposal will be the millions of dollars in subsidies - some explicit and others well-hidden - that will flow to the power companies and their contractors.

The organization operating the Hagerstown Ice & Sports Complex asked the Hagerstown City Council Tuesday to continue paying a $134,500 annual subsidy. The council did not act on the request by the nonprofit Washington County Sports Foundation. Roberta Rothen, the Sports Foundation's chairwoman, said the foundation's short-term goals include increasing public use, gaining additional corporate sponsors and partnering with community user groups. The discussion also involved the vacancy of the executive director position.

Hagerstown Regional Airport Director Carolyn Motz is pleased that a bill to subsidize commuter flights has passed the House of Delegates, but said it's not yet known when there will be flights between here and Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The legislation, filed by House Speaker Casper Taylor and passed by the House Saturday, requires passage in the state senate. "I am very delighted. I want it to work out. I am hoping to be in on the details of the issue as time goes on," Motz said Monday.

tarar@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN A US Airways Express carrier that planned to leave Hagerstown Regional Airport will receive a $650,000 annual federal subsidy to stay there through September 2007. Air Midwest, which operates as US Airways Express at the airport, will provide three round trips per day from Hagerstown to Pittsburgh International Airport in 19-seat Beech 1900D aircraft. It currently offers two daily flights. U.S. Sens. Paul Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski, both D-Md.

HAGERSTOWN - Hagerstown Regional Airport's only provider of commercial airline service will be leaving the airport in September. Air Midwest will discontinue flights at Hagerstown Regional Airport on Sept. 30, when the company's $650,000 annual federal subsidy to provide service at the airport expires. Tom Bacon of Mesa Air Group, which owns Air Midwest, said it would not be profitable to continue flying to Hagerstown after the subsidy ends. "We've done the calculations, and it just doesn't make sense," Bacon said.

With the approval of Maryland's legislature, Gov. Martin O'Malley will soon sign into law new state subsidies to lure power companies to build windmill generators off the coast of Ocean City. The legislation will raise electricity bills, but the added cost is supposed to bring more jobs, cleaner air and, in the words of Gov. O'Malley, “a better, more sustainable future for our children.”  Credit the governor and state lawmakers for such high-minded goals. Unfortunately, the chief “green” benefit from the proposal will be the millions of dollars in subsidies - some explicit and others well-hidden - that will flow to the power companies and their contractors.

In Washington County's world of emergency medical services, Community Rescue Service is the giant. Two years ago in 2010, Hagerstown-based CRS had 12,153 runs - easily more than half the 20,066 calls handled by all eight of the county's EMS companies, according to figures from the county Division of Emergency Services. And last year, the demand for help from the volunteer-owned CRS jumped to nearly 13,000 calls. All this comes at enormous cost - more than $3.5 million from July 2010 through June 2011, the company's most complete budget year.

When you're dipping into savings to keep your community ambulance service going, some say accountability is a small price to pay for financial help. “It's been a lifesaver, it really has,” Jonas Zeigler, assistant chief and career supervisor at Sharpsburg Area Emergency Medical Service, said about the $309,236 that Washington County government is giving the company this year. “Thank God for it,” Zeigler said. Chris Amos, chief of Community Rescue Service (CRS) in Hagerstown from 1994 through 2010, said the special staffing aid the county began giving its eight volunteer-owned emergency medical service (EMS)

Hagerstown Regional Airport would need to boost its Cape Air passenger counts to keep a federal subsidy under a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill under consideration in Congress. That bill, which would authorize and fund the FAA through 2015, also would tighten requirements for Essential Air Service subsidies, which help rural communities maintain commercial air service to larger hubs. Under the bill, to keep an EAS subsidy, an air service would have to average 10 or more passengers a day, unless the community it serves is more than 175 miles from a hub airport.

Changes to Franklin County's transportation system will have a minimal effect on the thousands of riders who rely on it every year, according to a county official. Minor changes to Franklin County Transportation went into effect on Jan. 3, but  those who use the service shouldn't worry that the buses will stop rolling, said Rick Wynn, county human services director. “I don't see anything to see us cutting back on it (transportation), but what we're trying to do is limit some of the trips,” Wynn said.

Get your financial reports in on time. Or else. Washington County government's funding gate slams shut on any of its 27 volunteer fire and rescue companies if that company misses its annual deadline for filing the required reports. The deadline is three months after a company's budget year ends. For 14 of the companies, that is June 30 - so their reports are due by Sept. 30. For the other 13, the budget year ends Dec. 31 - so their reports are due by March 31. "Any company that has not submitted their reporting within this three-month period shall have all public funds withheld until the report is submitted," the county's rules state.

Now that a pitched battle over the Federal Aviation Administration has died down, several small airports that want to keep a federal subsidy - including Hagerstown Regional Airport - must state their case. An agreement Congress reached last week would exclude those 13 airports from the Essential Air Service program. However, lawmakers left the door open for U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to approve further subsidies. A week later, there's no word of when the excluded airports can appeal or what LaHood will do. But Cape Air, which flies between Hagerstown and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport through an EAS subsidy, expects to stay in Hagerstown, based on what it has heard from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

A federal subsidy for Hagerstown Regional Airport is at risk in a tug of war that appeared certain to shut down parts of the Federal Aviation Administration and temporarily put nearly 4,000 people out of work. Congress failed Friday to work out a partisan dispute over legislation to temporarily extend the FAA's operating authority, according to the Associated Press. Portions of the FAA were expected to close at midnight. The Hagerstown subsidy - more than $1.2 million - pays for Cape Air to fly back and forth to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

As Congress struggles to find ways to reduce its budget deficit, I have one suggestion that can save American taxpayers as much as $6 billion annually: Eliminate the federal subsidy for corn ethanol.   Today, we provide what is basically corporate welfare to the oil industry for a tax break that the Government Accountability Office says is “largely unneeded.” In introducing the bipartisan Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) Repeal Act, S. 520, with U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)

The federal program that provides Hagerstown Regional Airport with a $1.2 million annual subsidy for air service could be at risk. The local airport has relied on federal Essential Air Service funding since the program's inception in 1978. The $200 million national program subsidizes air service to and from communities far from large airports. On Thursday, the U.S. Senate approved a Federal Aviation Administration budget with a new parameter for the EAS program that would eliminate Hagerstown.