SOCIALIST SHOCK - $1.5 Billion for an empty airport



Alberto Joao Jardim of Portugal  -  The King of European Big Spenders.



European Socialism in action . . .
"I'm proud of having contracted debts.  God bless the debt.  It has been put to the service of the dignity of every man and every woman."
Alberto Joao Jardim
President of the Regional Government of Madeira, Portugal



AN AIRPORT WITHOUT AIRPLANES

Spain may have won the Grand Prize for insane government spending.  They built a huge modern airport at great expense that has no passengers and no airplanes.

Ciudad Real Central Airport boasts a runway long enough for the world's biggest jumbo jets. Its backers confidently predicted that ten million passengers would pass through each year, relieving traffic at Madrid's busy international hub nearly 150 miles to the north reports the Los Angeles Times.

But only 33,000 people bothered to use the state-of-the-art facility in 2010. The ill-conceived airport, which cost about $1.5 billion to build and was subsidized by the Castilla-La Mancha regional government, now stands a good chance of being closed down.

Only discount airline Ryanair used the airport, but it eventually abandoned the facility. The regional government then agreed to subsidize three flights a week by another low-cost carrier, Vueling, but it, too, has decided to pull out.  The airport's future is now uncertain.

A beautiful airport with no passangers and no airplanes.
Spain's empty Ciudad Real Central Airport was built at a cost $1.5 billion and was subsidized by the Castilla-La Mancha regional government.  The government projected traffic of up to 10 million people a year.  In all of 2010 only 33,000 people used the airport.

The airport helps illustrate why Europe's relentless debt crisis goes far deeper than national governments. Profligate local government spending across the European Union constitutes ticking time bombs that policymakers are only beginning to deal with.

The credit ratings of 10 of Spain's regions were downgraded, including the economic powerhouse of Catalonia, home to Barcelona. The Catalonian government has taken the unusual step of selling up to $5 billion in bonds to private citizens to fund its debt because it has in effect been shut out of the commercial markets owing to the deepening euro debt crisis.

Through heavy social spending and investments in major building projects, Spain is one country whose regional authorities have been living beyond their means and racking up large budget deficits.  Spain's 17 regional governments were told to post budget shortfalls amounting to no more than 1.3% of GDP, but they almost reached that level after just the first six months of the year.

Next door in Portugal

Portugal was flabbergasted this year when auditors found that the governor of Madeira island had hidden $1.8 billion in debts in public accounts, the result of wild overspending on projects such as an extensive network of roads.

Madeira's controversial governor, Alberto Joao Jardim, who has headed the island for 33 years and is one of the world's longest-serving democratically elected leaders, remains unrepentant.

"I'm proud of having contracted debts. God bless the debt.... It has been put to the service of the dignity of every man and every woman," Jardim declared at a campaign rally before regional elections last month. He won another term.

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