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June 24, 2008

Oxendine says state needs 2nd major airport

By Charles Oliver

No other city the size of Atlanta has just one major airport, says Georgia insurance commissioner John Oxendine.

Oxendine, a Republican candidate for governor in 2010, spoke Tuesday at the Dalton-Whitfield Chamber of Commerce’s “Wake up Whitfield” breakfast.

Oxendine said Georgia needs a second major airport to relieve some of the burden on Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

“There’s a lot of debate about where that airport should go. Should it go north of Atlanta? Should it go south of Atlanta?” he said.

Oxendine said land is more readily available south of Atlanta, but that isn’t where the people are going. He said Atlanta officials would prefer to see a second airport built south of the city because no one would drive past Hartsfield to go to that airport.

“The Hartsfield airport is not the Atlanta airport. It’s a state asset. That airport has got to be run for the people of Georgia collectively,” he said. “You know who runs that airport? The city of Atlanta. If I’m the mayor of Atlanta, I don’t really want a second airport because it will be outside the city of Atlanta, and I want everybody to think Atlanta is the center of the universe.”

Oxendine said the state is going to have to tell Atlanta that Hartsfield has outgrown the city.

“While you can’t take the airport away from Atlanta unless you pay for it, the Legislature does have the authority to take away the city’s oversight authority,” he said. “I believe the state of Georgia needs to oversee the management of that airport so that it can be managed on behalf of the citizens of Georgia.”

Oxendine noted that some have said that the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport could be expanded to relieve some of the traffic at Hartsfield. He said that could only work if the two airports were connected by a “maglev” (magnetic levitation) train.

“A maglev is the only thing fast enough,” he said. “They are extremely, extremely expensive, and the maintenance is going to be very high also. Unfortunately, there’s not very much federal money right now for railroads. And we are going to have to have the federal government as our partner.”

Oxendine also said that if the Chattanooga airport is to be Atlanta’s second airport, the state of Georgia would have to be a co-owner of the airport.

“It would have to be a joint venture with equal ownership by the state of Georgia,” he said.

Asked about the state’s water problems, Oxendine said the solution will involve a number of approaches.

“It’s technologies. It’s conservation. It’s finding other sources of water,” he said. “It’s not one solution.”

Oxendine said he supports legislation that would give the insurance commissioner the authority to approve or reject rate increases for health insurance by insurance firms.

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