The Watertown airport celebrated its 10,000th passenger this year on Sunday when former resident Christine Stone flew home to Colorado Springs. Reaching that 10K milestone qualifies Watertown to receive an extra million dollars from the Federal Aviation Administration for airport building and repair projects.
We have no data yet showing that the Watertown City Council’s decision to throw an additional $25,000 of incentives toward plane tickets boosted ridership to levels that wouldn’t have been reached without government intervention. But at least Watertown has passed the finish line and avoided the egg on its face that would have resulted from failing to draw 10,000 passengers with local Chamber Bucks and E-30 ethanol coupons.
Now Watertown hopes to parlay this federal cash infusion into even bigger money from Uncle Sam:
Airport manager Todd Syhre said the airport plans to put the money to good use.
“We put in a five-year every year to the FAA,” Syhre said, “They review that and get back to us. What the million dollars will do is allow is to get projects done faster.”
Right now, the plan is to have new terminal building in 2021. Syhre would like to have $4 million saved up before then.
“We can save this money, bank it for four years, and hopefully have $4 million. That way, we can tell to the feds a new terminal will cost $8 million, and we can put up $4 million. I think they would go for that” [Roger Whittle, “Airport Surpasses Crucial Passenger Threshold with Two Weeks to Spare,” Watertown Public Opinion, 2017.12.18].
Syhre’s optimism assumes, of course, that Donald Trump will fail to promote his agenda, which includes eliminating the Essential Air Service program that makes passenger flights from Watertown financially viable. But Syhre also shows how shrewdly Watertown is playing the federal funding game. He’s saying Watertown could get a million from the feds each year for four years, bank it, then put that cash up as Watertown’s contribution toward a 50/50 federal matching grant for a big airport improvement. By that game, Watertown would actually get an entire eight-million-dollar project paid for 100% by Uncle Sam.
Those smart cookies in Watertown epitomize South Dakota conservatism: conserve South Dakota money by getting Uncle Sam to pay the whole bill!
I am willing to bet WATERTOWN Fliers will not pay the actual cost of a tickets when Essential Air Service program goes away. Cory do you know when the Fed’s will say you can be self supporting since you have enough boardings?
Sam, it’s hard to predict, since EAS eligibility is based on the size of subsidy necessary to keep flights feasible, not on specific numbers of passengers. Here are the criteria from a March 2017 CRS report:
That seems a little crooked. (I am referring to the last two paragraphs of the article.)
Saving the yearly grants, then using them to match a future federal grant certainly seems shady. But hey, would the airport manager speak so openly in the paper about it if it weren’t a legitimate practice?
Cory, that’s not how entitlement money works. Yes it can be “saved”, but not at a local bank. A better term would be “reserved for future use by the Watertown Airport”. Entitlement money has the same 10% match as regular FAA apportionment funds. The big deal here is that terminal projects are low priority in the FAA, so funding is difficult unless an airport commits to using all their entitlement funds- even then it can be tough. So the 50-50 comment means they are hoping to have an $8 million dollar project funded with $4 million FAA entitlement funds and $4 million apportionment funds – all at a 90/10 match. Apportionment funds are apportioned to the state, meaning the state aeronautics commission and DOT have say over where the money is spent. Entitlement funds are more controlled by the airport – although those can overlap some. I hope this makes sense.