A legal challenge to millions of taxpayer dollars supporting the McKinney airport expansion is highlighting ongoing concerns over the project’s approval and has drawn scrutiny from the attorney general, even as an airline prepares to start commercial flights this fall.
In a March lawsuit, the North Texas Conservation Association, made up of McKinney residents and neighbors, challenged the legality of how the city is paying off debt related to the airport’s expansion, which included a commercial passenger terminal. The attorney general also challenged the city’s funding process in a filing.
While the suit is not expected to ground Avelo Airlines’ planned flights or stop airport expansion, it reveals deep disagreement over the airport’s funding and a persisting wound over the city’s continued support of the project despite pushback from residents and neighbors.
In 2023, McKinney residents rejected a $200 million property-tax-backed bond to fund improvements and projects at the airport that included a commercial air service terminal building. In 2015, voters decided against a $50 million bond for improvements at the airport.
Some residents and neighbors fear the noise, traffic and growth an airport could bring to the suburban area in Collin County, while supporters of the project say McKinney could capitalize on the growing region's third commercial airport.
Related: Inside McKinney National’s long journey to become North Texas’ third commercial airport
After those failures at the ballot box, the city found other means to fund airport expansion, including state and city funds and sales tax revenue bonds from the city's economic development corporation and community development corporations.
“The McKinney City Council ignored the clearly expressed will of the voters and stubbornly pressed forward with airport expansion plans,” the NTCA asserts in its lawsuit.
City officials maintain the elections were about how to pay for the expansion, not whether to pay for it.
The $30 million in dispute
The latest disagreement on the airport surrounds $30 million in bond funding, backed by sales tax revenue, issued last year by the McKinney Community Development Corporation to help pay for expanding the airport. The attorney general approved those bonds.
The community development corporation, an economic development organization approved by McKinney voters in 1996 and funded by a half-cent sales tax, gives its revenue to “community, cultural and economic development projects that maintain and enhance the quality of life in McKinney,” according to its website.
The city is using a federal program of the U.S. Department of Transportation to refinance the $30 million bond, which will mean “significant savings for the taxpayers of McKinney,” according to the city.
