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Payette airport stands to gain from aircraft fee increase

Idaho News Service
Payette Municipal Airport’s plan to expand its runway and further improve taxiways was grounded by a recession that left the Idaho Division of Aeronautics short of money to spend in small communities.

Now, like many of its rural airport counterparts, Payette Municipal Airport stands to gain much-needed state improvement funds via two House bills that became law recently, according to a city official.

Sixty-one remote airports and backcountry landing strips in Idaho have a chance to make improvements from the estimated $153,500 annual net revenue increase that could be generated through House bills 117 and 118 — measures signed into law March 21 by Idaho Republican Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter.

The legislation eliminated the $6 per year state licensing fee paid by private pilots (HB117 cuts $13,500 to state coffers) but increased aircraft registration fees (HB118 would generate an estimated $167,000 yearly).

Payette city administrator Mary Cordova welcomed the additional funding potential.

“It’s a competitive environment with other small communities in the state,” Cordova said.

ITD’s Division of Aeronautics, particularly during the recent recession years, has experienced a relative shortage of money to allocate to the smaller community airports, but with the new fee structure enacted into state law, it now has extra funds to distribute as it sees fit.

Payette’s city airport has worked closely with Aeronautics to fund improvements like runway lighting, parallel taxiways and runway paving overlays. Some projects in Payette have been planned for several years but not started.

“These investments are vital to the economic development of our small airport,” Cordova said. “With the ever-dwindling resources government entities have been faced with, we applaud the Division of Aeronautics in its effort to develop a financing plan.”

Not being a National Plan of Integrated Airports Systems, or NPIAS, facility makes Payette ineligible to apply for federal matching grants for improvements.

Larger municipal Idaho airports, such as those in Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Nampa, Caldwell, and Coeur d’Alene, are part of the NPIAS system and thus are eligible for federal funding.

The airplane registration fee increase, in Cordova’s perspective, will help ensure that adequate financial resources are available in the future not only to further develop the air facilities as needed, but also to protect the state’s previous investments in them.

Idaho Department of Commerce officials have touted rural airport infrastructure upkeep as a kind of economic development tool.

“Air travel is a critical component of the state’s economy,” said Commerce spokeswoman Megan Ronk. “As we talk with businesses across the state, they tell us both interstate and intrastate travel, which is access to their markets and customers, is one of their top priorities.”

Not everyone, however, was sold on the fee increase aspect of the legislative package.

Saying he remained unconvinced the fee increase was necessary, or that benefits would spike proportionately, Rep. Neil Anderson, R-Blackfoot, voted against the aircraft registration fee increase when it passed the House 49-20 on Feb. 26. Anderson asserted that whenever a tax or fee increase is contemplated, it’s “a good time to ask: Do we need it, do we need this much of it and who is responsible to pay?”

Idaho registration fees for aircraft for personal and recreational use were last raised in 1990, said HB118’s House floor sponsor, Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace.