"Minden-Tahoe Airport Economic Impact $151 million"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Friday, April 27, 2007

Report: Airport raises $151 million
By Susie Vasquez
The Carson City (NV) Nevada Appeal


Businesses in and around Minden-Tahoe Airport bring an estimated $151.6
million for Douglas County through the generation of jobs, property taxes
and sales taxes, according to a report prepared by Thomas Harris, director
of the University Center for Economic Development at the University of
Nevada, Reno. 

"Beyond the direct economic benefits of $106.8 million, the indirect and
induced impacts of the airport and surrounding businesses was $44.8
million," Harris said in the report. 

The airport and surrounding businesses supported 952 jobs and paid $34.1
million in salaries. Businesses adjacent to the Minden airport bring another
$19.6 million in employment, 77 jobs and $3.6 million in labor income, the
report said. 

Owned and operated by Douglas County, the airport handles an estimated
80,000 aircraft takeoffs and landings annually on its two runways. The
airport also serves the Sierra Front Dispatch Agency, which dispatches air
tankers along the Sierra, and is known as a world-class site for glider
pilots. 

Minden-Tahoe is the gateway to South Lake Tahoe and charter jets contracted
to casinos bring about 120 passengers each week. Commercial business has
grown, due in part to the lack of a tower at the Lake Tahoe Airport, said Al
Gangwish, owner of Hutt Aviation. 

"Many customers with jets have second homes here and they come and go
weekly," he said. "We also service a lot of general aviation planes. We're
busy, and we're glad to be here." 

The airport, which takes no tax dollars from Douglas County, garnered a
total of $4.3 million in revenues. Expenditures totalled almost $3.9 million
in 2005. Capital projects took up the bulk of that budget, or $2.8 million,
according to county officials. 

A total of $860,187 is generated through hangar and other leases for planes,
charges for services and other miscellaneous charges, but the airport relies
heavily on Federal Aviation Agency grants, according to airport officials.

Northern Nevada airports received about $13.5 million in 2005 and 2006 from
the federal government, paid by airline passengers in six separate taxes and
fees on a single airline ticket. More than $104 billion has been collected
since 1997, according to a report by the Associated Press. 

"What are people getting for their money?" said Kenneth Button, a professor
of transportation at George Mason University's School of Public Policy and
an expert on air transit taxation. "Delays are increasing. How can consumers
make a sensible assessment on how the money is being spent?"

Congress will decide later this year whether to curtail the huge public
subsidy for small airports, while pilots' associations, airport managers and
other interested groups are fighting to keep it, according to the AP report.


Airport Manager Jim Braswell said the grants pay for critical maintenance.
The loss of that funding source would be a catastrophe for the American
transportation system. 

At Minden-Tahoe, the grants were used to repair pavement failures due to
frost heaving over the last three winters, he said. 

"We receive an average of $1million to $1.5 million in grants a year just
for maintenance," he said. "Emergency services and fire protection are
important issues, especially in this part of the country."

Generation of the report was a cooperative effort involving the Northern
Nevada Development Authority, the Carson Valley Chamber Economic Development
Committee and the Business Council of Douglas County.

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