State grant funding not on E.V. airports' radar

East Valley airports are bracing for a cut in anticipated state grant funding that would have helped pay for development meant to draw in more businesses and high-paying jobs.

In an effort to balance the budget, the Legislature this year cut funding to the state's Aviation Fund that divvies out grants for development at local airports statewide.

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Administrators at area airports met Wednesday with officials with the aeronautical division of the Arizona Department of Transportation to review what the cut means to the airports, and pinpoint alternative routes to get funding for projects elsewhere.

Officials at the airports say the elimination of what has become annual grant funding may harm cities if it stunts their ability to grow in key areas. However, they added that they're working with state officials to find alternative funding to the grants they had anticipated receiving.

"If we get it, it keeps our construction projects online, and we're able to bring new businesses into the area with high-paying aeronautical jobs," said Brian Sexton, spokesman for Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.

The FAA requires a 5 percent match for their airport grants, and the state has historically covered 2.5 percent of those matches with its program.

"For Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, there are hundreds of millions of dollars worth of capital improvements that need to take place in the next few years," Sexton said. "So when grant money dries up, it has a potential to stifle growth."

The fund receives no money from the state General Fund, but is a collection of money generated by aircraft registration, as well as flight property, aircraft dealer licensing and aviation fuel taxes.

In 2007, revenue into the fund was $22.9 million, and in fiscal 2008, the fund reimbursed $19.4 million in grants based on the Airport Capitol Improvement Plan. Projects are reviewed and approved by the State Transportation Board, said Laura Douglas, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Transportation. In a statement e-mailed to the Tribune, Douglas said cuts to the fund represent "lost opportunities to make improvements to airport infrastructure around the state, but will not affect safety."

The grants Phoenix-Mesa Gateway had hoped to receive this current fiscal year were $2 million in drainage ditch construction, which is required before new businesses that already have leases for corporate hangers can build their facilities. While the airport, like others, hopes to find the funding elsewhere from either state or airport coffers, the loss of what has become annual grant assistance from the state puts the development and the coming businesses at risk.

Corinne Nystrom, director of Mesa's Falcon Field Airport, said she had anticipated a $100,000 grant this year to help make culverts on the "safe zones" between taxiways and runways safer, in case an airplane runs off the runway. If the funding isn't reinstated next year, Nystrom said she's confident the airport will still qualify for a federal grant to help pay for construction of a taxiway needed on a portion of undeveloped land that will then become home to corporate hangars and new companies, she said.

"We're disappointed that revenue that's being generated by aviation users is not coming back to the airport," Nystrom said.