Atlantic City's airport needs the expressway's tolls to stay in business

The South Jersey Transportation Authority continues to rely on revenue from the Atlantic City Expressway to offset the cost of operating Atlantic City International Airport.

In 2011, airport operations were subsidized by $3.5 million in tolls -- a nearly 10 percent increase over the $3.2 million used for airport operations in 2010, according to the authority's most recent financial audit obtained by The Press of Atlantic City through the Open Public Records Act.

Put another way, the subsidy accounted for nearly a quarter of the airport's $14.9 million budget in 2011. The previous year, the subsidy represented 21 percent of the airport's $15.2 million budget.

The situation has been worse. Within the past five years, at times the subsidy has been as high as $4.8 million and made up as much as a third of the airport's annual budget.

SJTA acting Executive Director Sam Donelson, however, said the authority cannot continue to rely so heavily on that financing. The airport should be a self-sufficient operation, he said.

"It certainly is unsustainable over the long haul," Donelson said. "Ideally, our airport wouldn't need a subsidy from the expresswa