EVERETT, Wash. – It has been talked about for years – the possibility of having commercial passenger service at Snohomish County's Paine Field.

The debate has grown heated lately. During the last few months, people for and against commercial service have been trying to rally political support.

But the City of Everett is not weighing in until they have done their homework. They are planning to ask a research group to study the impact of commercial flights at Paine Field.

"It's a way to sustain the jobs we have in Snohomish County and attract other jobs," said Greg Tisdel, who heads up the pro-passenger service group "Fly From Everett."

His counterpart from the opposing group "Save Our Communities" is Greg Hauth who says passenger service at Paine Field would be costly.

"Property devaluation, lost property taxes, impacts on schools and children, environmental and even health impacts," he named.

There is room at Paine Field for commercial passenger service. While the City of Mukilteo has set aside money to fight any such expansion, the City of Everett may spend as much as $70,000 to study the impact.

"What would commercial air service mean to the City of Everett from an economic perspective?" asked Ray Stephanson, Everett mayor.

Stephanson says the city wants to hire a consulting firm to carefully look at the costs and benefits of passenger service.

"We want to deal with this as factually as we can. Clearly, there's a lot of emotion around this issue," he said.

"I'm really excited about Everett looking at what opportunities this may bring the citizens," said Tisdel.

If you believe "Fly From Everett," the opportunities are many.

"Save Our Communities" couldn't disagree more.

"We think that anybody who does a fair cost benefit analysis will find that the costs far outweigh the benefits," said Hauth.

If the Everett City Council approves funding for the study, the preliminary results should be in by January 1, 2008.