Someday, maybe in the next century, when state government at last has fully funded its state employee pension obligations and decided that the compensation of government employees no longer should have priority over everything else, Connecticut may recognize that economic development in the southern part of the state requires better passenger airline service. 

Years ago New Haven, Bridgeport, and New London did have better airline service. But preserving that service was never important to state government, and today transportation infrastructure generally is far down state government's list, trailing not only state employee compensation but also education, itself mostly municipal employee compensation, and remediation of the child neglect and abuse caused by welfare policy. 

This is especially too bad now that a federal court has ruled that Tweed New Haven Airport can lengthen its runways to serve larger planes and increase passenger service despite a silly state law that actually forbids it. 

The law is the essence of Connecticut's NIMBY-ism — the "not in my back yard" attitude that obstructs state government from operating in the broad public interest. 

State government doesn't own Tweed. New Haven does, even as much of the airport property is just over the city line in East Haven. Policy about the airport long has been mainly a matter of mollifying the neighbors about noise, though the airport has been there for 90 years and nobody living near it can claim surprise. In 2009 state legislators representing the neighbors arranged enactment of a law to forbid lengthening Tweed's main runway, which is too short for today's basic airliners. Most other legislators then were happy to let local concerns trump the state's interest in better air transportation. 

But lately New Haven officials have grown tired of complaints from businesses about Tweed's limited flight options — three daily flights to Philadelphia and one weekly flight to Charlotte on small planes — and about the long rides to the nearest serious airports, an hour to Bradley International in Windsor Locks and more than that to Westchester County, LaGuardia, and Kennedy airports in New York and Newark in New Jersey. So New Haven Mayor Toni Harp is supporting expanding Tweed, while state Senate President Martin M. Looney, whose district abuts Tweed, still opposes it. Also in opposition is the Senate's Republican minority leader, Len Fasano, whose district includes East Haven. 

The court decision says federal law gives the Federal Aviation Administration authority over airport expansions involving safety, making the state law prohibiting Tweed's expansion unconstitutional. The decision well may be questionable and Looney and Fasano want state Attorney General William Tong to appeal it. 

But Governor Lamont has spoken in favor of improving Tweed, and Tong can't want to get caught in this dispute while he can gain so much publicity from his bashing of the Trump administration, which, while of little relevance to Connecticut, generates little criticism. 

The best solution would be for state government to repeal the runway law and, through the Connecticut Airport Authority, which runs Bradley, acquire Tweed, use eminent domain to take property needed for expansion, and build an airport that helps fulfill the economic potential of the southern part of the state — after, of course, state employee pension claims are satisfied and money becomes available for anything that matters to anyone else in Connecticut.

Chris Powell is a columnist for the Journal Inquirer in Manchester.