Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald expressed concern Tuesday that a proposal to expand the county’s airport authority to add members appointed by state officials could hamper progress at Pittsburgh International Airport.

Fitzgerald said even having a proposal like the one offered by state House Speaker Mike Turzai is hurting efforts to help the airport become more economically viable.

“When business does business with something, they want predictability. They want stability. When they see a change like this, they’re wondering what change is next? What else is going to happen? This is throwing a lot of doubt into the airline industry about what’s going on in Pittsburgh,” Fitzgerald said Tuesday. “And now all of a sudden, you’re going to put people on the board that are going to be selected by people from Philadelphia and other parts of the state that are going to have our competitive information? It makes no sense.”

Turzai, R-Marshall, has proposed expanding the airport authority board from nine to 13 members. Five of the 13 members would be appointed by state officials, one by each legislative caucus and one by the governor. All of the legislative appointees would have to be Allegheny County residents.

Turzai’s bill is set to come up for a vote Monday by the House Local Government Committee.

Under the current setup, all nine of the authority board members are appointed by Fitzgerald. He would lose one appointment to the expanded board.

Fitzgerald says Pittsburgh is being singled out and he doesn’t understand why.

“Why is no other airport going to have this oversight? Not Philadelphia, not Harrisburg, not Scranton, not Erie, not Altoona, not Lancaster. Why only one airport?” Fitzgerald said Tuesday.

According to Turzai, the airport authority receives $12.4 million annually from the state to help reduce costs to the airlines operating from Pittsburgh International Airport. In addition, he says, the authority has received tens of millions of dollars in recent years in state capital grants and Department of Transportation funding.

“There is no system of checks and balances for the airport authority board. It doesn’t exist,” said Turzai. “There are nine people appointed by the county executive, and the county doesn’t give any tax dollars to the airport authority. There hasn’t been any oversight, particularly for a group of people that seem to be rubber stamps for the county executive. The only objective here is to provide additional eyes and ears on the board with respect to important financial decisions that we all know impacts state taxpayers moving forward.”

Fitzgerald pointed out that some of the grant money has come through the federal government.

“So, should we put our congressional delegation on there as well? And should the state now sit on every single authority, every single board around the state that they give money to? You have got to question the motivation of why now when the airport is finally heading in the right direction? Why not 15 years ago or 10 years ago?” Fitzgerald said.

Turzai dismissed the speculation of some, including Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills and Democratic Caucus Chair Wayne Fontana. They have questioned the timing of the proposal, believing it might have something to do with the airport authority embarking on a $1.1 billion modernization project at Pittsburgh International Airport, Turzai said.

The proposal is the same as legislation passed in 2013 that expanded the Port Authority board from nine to 11 members, with four appointed by the General Assembly and one by the governor, Turzai said. Fitzgerald argued that it’s not a fair comparison.

“That made sense because 75% of the money that goes to the Port Authority was paid for by the state taxpayers,” Fitzgerald said. “That is not the case here. There are no state tax dollars going in here. And the Port Authority doesn’t compete for transit riders. The airport is in a very competitive situation. We are fighting for flights.”

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