MASCOUTH, IL (KTVI) – MidAmerica Airport loses millions of taxpayer dollars a year. But our You Paid For It Investigation learned that the Airport Director Tim Cantwell is taking home a hefty bonus for running a airport that’s empty much of the time.
His salary is $124,000, but on top of that he gets a hefty bonus.
We learned he got a more than $16,000 bonus in 2014, the year a county audit says the airport lost $12 million dollars.
Last year he got a $20,000 bonus.
Investigator Elliott Davis caught up with Cantwell. When we asked him if it made sense for him to get a bonus when the airport was losing money he answered “Makes sense to me.”
Ed Cockrell a member of the St. Clair County Board condemns the bonuses saying that it’s not justified.
In addition to the bonuses we also discovered that Cantwell spent a lot of tax dollars on trips out of the country.
A total of $64,000 on at least 4 trips to China, a trip to South Korea, and one to England where he says he was trying to drum up business.
He says the China trips brought in between $15,000 and $20,000 dollars.