What Could a City Fund With the $180 Million That Wayward Military Blimp Cost?
NORAD's Air Force Col. Chuck Douglass walks in front of an unmanned aerostat that is part of a new U.S. military cruise-missile defense system during a media preview, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, in Middle River, Md. Chuck Douglass / AP File Photo
From St. Louis to South Lake Tahoe to New York City, we look at equivalent local spending or funding needs.
As Wednesday’s wayward U.S. Army blimp drama played out in the skies above Maryland and Pennsylvania, a hefty price tag was mentioned as a passing detail: $180 million per blimp, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. (The aircraft is part of the Army's JLENS air defense system, which the Pentagon has spent northward of $2.5 billion on.)
Any way you slice it, that’s one expensive blimp. And as Mashable pointed out, that $180 million blimp is no longer worth $180 million.
But in the bigger world of U.S. defense spending, $180 million is more or less chump change. Plenty of local governments around the country would be certainly happy to take that chump change to fund the things they either need to fund or would like to fund.
Scanning recent local government news stories around the U.S., pricetags of $180 million are not uncommon. From St. Louis to South Lake Tahoe to Louisville to New York City to other places, it’s interesting to compare the cost of one military blimp with equivalent local financial needs and priorities.
Here’s where the $180 million price tag pops up around the nation:
ST. LOUIS, Missouri: This summer, the city of St. Louis put a $180 million infrastructure bond proposal before voters. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported before the vote, the supplemental money would have paid for “new firetrucks, police department equipment, building demolition and a host of other infrastructure needs.” St. Louis voters rejected the bond proposal and sadly, St. Louis City Hall didn’t have a Plan B to meet those needs.
NEW YORK CITY, New York: As Gothamist reported earlier this month, $180 million is what New York City paid last year to help 53,000 households cover back rent in order to avoid eviction.
KILLEEN, Texas: In high-growth Texas, $180 million is what the Killeen Independent School District needs to build a fifth high school. As The Killeen Daily Herald reported recently, building that new high school “would most likely require a bond election as the district does not have enough in savings to cover the cost of construction.”
NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey: In April, voters in this city approved a schools budget of $180 million, according to NJ.com.
ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania: This city’s arena, the PPL Center, cost $180 million to build, according to The Morning Call.
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky: In September, city and state officials unveiled their plans to revamp the Kentucky International Convention Center and expand exhibition space from 55,000 square feet to 200,000 square feet, according to The Courier-Journal. The cost of the expansion, which comes with environmentally friendly features? $180 million.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, California: Last month, the city leaders approved a $75.2 million budget for the 2015-2016 fiscal year, including $34.3 million in general fund spending and revenue estimates for $34.3 million, according to the Tahoe Daily Tribune. But, going through the details, there’s a bigger figure: The city “also owes $180 million in bond debt, which it will continue paying through 2038 from property and hotel tax revenues.”
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive’s Route Fifty.
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