The price of low corporate jet fees

To the editor:

In response to your articles published Feb. 27, 2018 and May 24, 2017 about the disparity of jet fees between New Hampshire and Massachusetts — $300,000 registration fee in New Hampshire, versus $300 in Massachusetts:

That is almost beyond belief. No wonder Massport is trampling Bedford, Mass., town officials and neighborhoods and quietly working with its favorite contractors on a surge of storage hangar construction at Hanscom Field!

Last summer and fall, thousands of Massport-contracted heavy-duty construction trucks filled our small neighborhood streets, 24/7, for six weeks of runway repaving. It was a nightmare for residents along the Massport Haul Road as well as pedestrians, bicyclists and ordinary motorists.

Massport now tells us its new Hanscom Field hangar expansion project will last two years. Our little town will soon again be under siege by enormous Massport project 18-wheeler tractor trailers and giant dump trucks on our neighborhood roads.

Massport and its tenants at Hanscom Field pay no property taxes to Bedford. It is a great bargain for corporate jet owners and Massport, not so great for our little town and neighborhoods, or perhaps now for New Hampshire.

Hanscom Field is also dotted with 22 former and current Superfund sites that the construction projects and trucks operate among before rumbling through our neighborhood streets, only feet from homes, soccer fields and kids on bikes.

The new hangar(s) and accompanying aircraft service and possible fueling facilities are going to be snuggled up next to one of the Superfund sites that did the original damage to our drinking water.

Its clearly a win-win for corporate jet owners and Massport, not so much for the rest of us.

Because of your reporting, at least we can now understand why the Massport hangar project is suddenly so urgent. We had no idea of the disparity in jet fees ($300,000 versus $300), or that there is no sales tax on aircraft in Massachusetts. That’s why the residents were speculating that one of the numbers in your article was a typo and I volunteered to ask you. Too bad for us that there was no typo.

Jennifer Boles
Bedford, Mass.