Including the funding for Alexander Field in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., in the state budget led to criticism that developer Mike Keiser had gained favor through political donations. But the state representative for Sand Valley’s district denied the implication. “This isn’t just a Michael Keiser airport [or a] Sand Valley airport,” State Rep. Scott Krug said about facility improvements that he called long overdue.
A tiny airport in central Wisconsin that’s seen an influx of private jets since a world-class golf course, Sand Valley Golf Resort, opened nearby (http://clubandresortbusiness.com/2017/07/sand-valley-golf-resort-opens-public-play/) now stands to get $4 million in improvements under funding that has been included in the Wisconsin state budget, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The Wisconsin legislature’s Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee approved the funding, the AP reported, and that led to criticism after a review of records showed that the developer of Sand Valley, Mike Keiser, donated $25,000 to the state Republican Party in February, three weeks after Gov. Scott Walker released his budget without funding for Wisconsin Rapids’ Alexander Field.
In total, the AP reported, Keiser has given at least $65,000 to Walker and Wisconsin Republicans since 2012.
“It sure looks like Mr. Keiser’s campaign contributions to Scott Walker and Republicans teed up millions in taxpayer-funded improvements to help bring corporate jet-ferried golfers to his Wisconsin courses,” Mike Browne, with the liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now, told the AP. “Meanwhile, the rest of us will continue to have to deal with crumbling roads and bridges and delayed projects as these same Republicans take a budget mulligan and refuse to fix the state transportation funding crisis.”
Keiser’s son, Michael Keiser, who manages the resort, returned a message left for his father, the AP reported, and denied that any donation was meant to force inclusion of the funding for the airport.
“We’re never going to make a political contribution to affect any decision,” the younger Keiser said.
Donations from his father, which in Wisconsin date back to at least 1991, based on records maintained by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, are targeted to candidates he believes in, Michael Keiser added.
Republican state Rep. Scott Krug, who is not on the budget committee but whose legislative district includes the golf course, told the AP that Keiser’s donations didn’t have anything to do with the airport project getting funded. Those donations, Krug said, were to support Republicans who were doing good things for the Wisconsin economy, and not to win approval of the airport funding.
The planned upgrades for the Wisconsin Rapids airport, Krug added, are long overdue for all planes that use it. “This isn’t just a Michael Keiser airport,” he said. “This isn’t just a Sand Valley airport.”
The state Department of Transportation had planned to pay for the airport upgrades in 2021, Krug noted, but the improvements are now being moved up to this year to meet the demand caused by the added air traffic due to the golf course’s opening.
“It would be rare to see a private jet before the Sand Valley course opened,” he said. “Now you have six to eight private jets sitting out there on any given day.”
While Keiser’s son said he didn’t have any data on the increase in flights since the first of four planned golf courses opened this year, the AP reported, he did say getting the money to improve the airport was important to deal with the growth of the property.
“It’s important for us, because we want it to be as easy as possible for our guests to get here,” the younger Keiser said.
Krug told the AP that he spoke with Gov. Walker about funding the work before he released the budget, and he doesn’t know why it wasn’t originally included.
The airport is just a 20-minute drive from the resort created by Keiser, the AP reported, who has used his fortune made in the greeting-card business to create the Bandon Dunes golf mecca along the Oregon coast, along with other courses in Michigan, Canada and Australia.
Keiser bought the property that would ultimately become the Sand Valley Golf Resort in 2013. The resort was designed by two-time Masters winner Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, and has garnered national attention since it opened in April.
But Wisconsin Rapids officials said the city-owned airport can’t accommodate the corporate and private jets bringing golfers to the new resort, the AP reported. They identified nearly $7 million in needed improvements, including additional taxiways, larger aprons, plane parking areas and more fuel storage.
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