Many residents across Marion County have written letters to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of bringing commercial flights to Ocala International Airport. An Ocala resident recently wrote in to share his thoughts on this topic.
“I find it interesting that people are opposed to the expansion of airport services for our city and county. They state that the tranquility of Marion County’s horse farms would be impacted.
#1: The airport is here, it is where it is, and expanding commercial services to the citizens of Ocala and Marion County will not harm the horse farms as much as the atrocious gobbling up of land that the housing developers are already doing.
#2: The taxpayers of Ocala and Marion County are sending dollars to the airport authority, but few of us get to use it because there are no commercial flights available for us regular people. The people benefiting from the citizen taxation for the airport are people with private planes and corporate aircraft. Horse farms are not going to be gobbled up in order to secure commercial airlines that would serve us all here.
#3: How much return on our tax dollars, which are being spent by the average Joe who doesn’t own a private jet, do citizens actually see? Why are some of you fighting against commercial airline service at the same airport that would now charge you $2,000 an hour to lease a private jet? Go ahead and pay the tax collector to finance Ocala International Airport, but drive to Tampa or Orlando and spend your money there to be able to fly somewhere.
Let’s look at making our airport facility more available to everyday folks, not just corporate and private aircraft owners. The airport already has land surrounding it for expansion. Best worry about the tract builders.”
Bill Vee
Ocala resident
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