We can’t disagree with Chautauqua County choosing to spend $31,625 in order to receive $1.265 million from the federal government.

The county would, frankly, be stupid to turn down that deal, just as school districts receiving 95% state aid on a project would be dumb to turn down building projects that are largely paid for by state taxpayers.

On the other hand we have no idea what the heck the federal government is thinking. In 2018 the federal government decided that Chautauqua County wasn’t meeting the requirements of the federal government’s’ Essential Air Service subsidy – a decision that ended commercial air service at the county’s Jamestown airport. County officials have tried a few times in the years since to have air service restored, but the federal government has said it doesn’t think Chautauqua County can meet ridership requirements for the program.

So, the federal government has no faith that riders will use the Jamestown airport, but feels fine spending $1.265 million on a project to upgrade the terminal at the same airport that the federal government largely closed.

For the past year all we’ve heard out of Washington, D.C., is a new era of fiscal restraint. We’ve seen funding approved by prior administrations frozen, rescinded, battled in court and then eventually restored. We went through a government shutdown created largely over a disagreement on health care spending. The desire to make sure money was being spent wisely was the reason behind the federal government’s proposed closure of the Cassadaga Job Corps Academy – a decision that has now been reversed, according to Sen. Charles Schumer.

It would be easier for Chautauqua County to move on from commercial air service at the Jamestown airport if the federal government stopped stringing the county along with regular grant-funded projects. But that is the type of tough choice the federal government is unwilling to make. Or, perhaps, it’s a choice the federal government is incapable of making.