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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > February > 12
Friday, February 12, 2010
Editorial: Shuttle should land at Air Force museum
We’re coming down to the wire on learning whether the Air Force museum is going to get one of the soon-to-be-retired three space shuttles.
Actually, there are only two.
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum — understandably — will get the Discovery, which will be the last to fly. That leaves just Endeavour and Atlantis, with Atlantis possibly available as early as July 2011.
The good new news is that the price, so to speak, for this privilege has come down.
Originally, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said that museums would have to pay $42 million to take possession of a shuttle. That was the estimated cost for decommissioning and moving one of the birds to a new home.
Not surprisingly, that figure stunned a lot of places.
Nonetheless, it didn’t stop possibly as many as 20 museums and educational institutions, including the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, from making the case why they would be a fitting resting place.
In truth, though, finding that sort of money would be difficult for any of the bidders. The latest word is that it will cost just $28.8 million to take ownership.
Local people following this competition, however, think NASA may whittle the possible receivers to only federal sites. That not only narrows the list of interested parties, but it makes it easier to justify using federal money — not necessarily from NASA’s budget specifically— to get the space vehicles ready for public display.
NASA had a nice, but probably not very realistic, hope that it could totally pass off the expense of retiring this fleet at no cost to it or to the feds generally.
Even though there’s intense demand for the orbiters, museums and their local communities are also being told that they also have to have show places where they can protect and display these pieces of history.
How much can reasonably be asked of people who are getting something of tremendous value, but, at the same time, are preserving a piece of history for the country?
The Air Force Museum Foundation is raising money to expand the museum’s current one million square feet of exhibit space. It imagines a shuttle in a fourth building that would expand the museum’s footprint by 20 percent.
That would be terrific for the Dayton region, but also for the Air Force. It has years of work, and generations of people, invested in the shuttle and space programs.
Given where that service is headed — with space-based weaponry, space-based reconaisance and satellite protection — the museum would be missing so much to not have this part of its mission and its history reflected in its treasury of flying machines.
Led by U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, Ohio’s congressional delegation is behind the push for bringing a shuttle to Ohio. That advocacy campaign needs to be aggressive and persistent.
If Ohio — the home of astronauts — and the Air Force — the contributor of so much for the shuttle’s development — lose out on this, the politicians will have a lot of explaining to do.
On the merits, the Air Force museum can’t be passed over.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Wright Patterson Air Force Base
Editorial: New late fee for licenses is over the top
When it comes to late fees, Ohio’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles is acting like a credit card company.
A steep new $20 fee for those who register their vehicles or renew their driver’s licenses more than seven days after they expire has hit 300,000 drivers since it went into effect on Oct. 1. Many Ohioans are feeling hoodwinked.
The General Assembly went overboard in instituting such a high fee. A responsible fix is needed.
The fee was first recommended by a task force that was asked to find new ways to fund the Ohio State Patrol, which had relied primarily on gas tax revenue. The task force suggested several new auto-related fees and fee hikes.
The initial proposal was for a $10 late fee for licenses, but lawmakers — facing a huge budget hole — doubled it to $20 with the goal of raising $19 million a year for the state patrol.
They also exceeded the task force recommendations for fees on other services, but the license and registration late fees have surprised drivers the most. It has raised $6.4 million — more than was even anticipated.
The bureau notes that it now sends 90-day warnings to drivers that their license renewal is almost due, and it permits them to complete the process easily over the Internet, and it allows a whole week grace period before instituting the fee.
Remember, also, that a driver who is even one day past expiration can be cited by police and stuck with a much higher fine — for not having a valid license.
Still, $20 is close to the $25.75 cost of just renewing a driver’s license. Also, there is a bit of a quirk that makes the new rule feel even more unfair.
Many Ohioans mistakenly believe their licenses do not expire until the end of their birthday month. This has never been true. The law requires renewal no later than your birth date.
Still, many Ohioans routinely complete their renewals at the end of the month and are used to doing so without penalty.
A fee that nearly doubles the cost of renewal is too much.
Republicans are rallying around a bill that would eliminate the fee with no plan for replacing the lost revenue. That’s a bad idea. Democrats are working on their own bill that also would eliminate the fee but replace the lost dollars with new revenue, though they haven’t specified yet where the money will come from.
Following the task force recommendation of a $10 late fee would make sense. And whatever the final plan, it must include a way to replace the lost revenue, so the state patrol budget isn’t upended.
Permalink | Comments (53) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Law Enforcement and Public Safety, Ohio government, Scott Elliott
