An unresolved dispute with the federal government has left Los Angeles airports staring at potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of unexpected costs, congressional investigators indicated in a report issued Monday, the Daily Breeze reports.
At issue is a project worth nearly $900 million that will overhaul the baggage-screening systems at Los Angeles International and LA/Ontario International airports. The main question is how much of the money will come from the Transportation Security Administration, and how much will come from the airports themselves.
The TSA agreed in 2003 to pay three-quarters of what it thought the project would cost — but that was before those costs began to skyrocket. Its pledge now amounts to less than a third of the project’s total price tag, but the agency has said it has no obligation to make up the difference.
The General Accountability Office agreed in the report it released Monday. It concluded that the Los Angeles agency that runs both airports went to the TSA with premature plans in 2003, yielding an estimate that was nowhere near the true costs.
