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92 HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM My memory, if it serves me correctly, is &164 million. Senator MONRONEY. This is the lifeline, you might say, connecting this $164 million investment with Midway and an auxiliary field usable for interline transfer? Mr. PUCINSKI. Yes, sir. We are asking for another 5 years. We are not saying we want this indefinitely. We have every reason to believe that this service can become self-sufficient when Midway becomes fully operative. All we are asking now is that they don't choke off that lifeline before we pump some new breath into this project. Senator MONRONEY. Would Chicago City be willing to pick up a part of the cost of the helicopters? Mr. PUCINSKI. Senator, I am afraid I would not be--- Senator MONRONEY. They have a big investment of $164 million. We run into this situation at Dulles. I think it would be wise, is necessary--and I happen to sit on the Appropriations Committee that controls the appropriations for Dulles International Airport--perhaps to put in a few hundred thousand dollars to make usable an investment which for the U.S. Government and Dulles run about $130 million. Consequently, to let a $130 million investment go down the drain--and you are letting a $164 million investment go down the drain--for want of a few thousand dollars to operate a transportation system that would gear it into a modern-day transportation complex, doesn't make sense. In other words, I am looking for a pigeon to pick up part of this tab. Mr. PUCINSKI. I am not in a position to answer that question. This will have to be answered by the administration of the city of Chicago. However, I am sure that the Senator and members of the committee are fully aware of the tremendous problem that those local cities are having with the financing, with the increased need for additional police protection, fire protection, and schoolteachers. There isn't a mayor in America who can figure out where he can raise enough money to meet his immediate physical problems. Therefore, this is today perhaps the largest problem in America. The local taxes have been going up and up over the last 15 years to a point now where in many instances real estate taxes are becoming confiscatory. While I am in complete agreement with you that I will behoove a city like Chicago to invest some money to protect the huge investment. I think you are absolutely right on that; the question is one of whether it can be done, whether the resources are there for this kind of an investment. This is way it is entirely possible that after the 5-year period the city of Chicago may want to look--and New York and San Francisco and Los Angeles--at this very excellent suggestion of yours. I think our problem now is an immediate one. Our problem is to continue these subsidies so that we don't interrupt the service, and the related installations. So that when we do reactivate Midway, we will have a connecting link. Senator MONRONEY. It seems to me that you have a better airport situation at Chicago than you do in New York City because the traffic patterns of existing airports in New York City get pretty tight. Mr. PUCINSKI. I hold my breath every time I fly there. Senator MONRONEY. You have much more airspace with which to separate your traffic between Midway and O'Hare, I believe. New
