The V.I. Port Authority, which oversees public seaports and both Virgin Islands airports, can again receive millions of dollars in federal discretionary grants for the airports as St. Croix’s Anguilla Landfill is on track to close by the end of this year.
Historically, the Port Authority has received entitlement grants from the Federal Aviation Administration based on the number of planes landing along with discretionary grants based on competitive grant applications, Kenn Hobson, the authority’s executive director, told the Senate Budget Committee Friday. For 10 years, the FAA has prohibited the Port Authority from applying for discretionary money because there was no credible plan in place to close the landfill, which the FAA said posed a safety hazard at the airport because of possible bird strikes, Hobson said.
With the landfill due to stop taking new waste by the end of the year and a plan worked out with the Waste Management Authority for closing the landfill, the port authority has managed to get the FAA to reinstate its eligibility.
"In fact, on July 22 … the Port Authority received a $14.2 million grant from the FAA to fund repairs for the Cyril E. King Airport runway on St. Thomas," Hobson said.
Sen. Craig Barshinger asked Hobson how much federal money for the airports had been lost as a result.
"It’s difficult to say, since we’re talking about competitive grant applications," Hobson said. "But before we were prohibited from applying for discretionary grants, I would say we were getting between $3 [million] and $5 million a year, so if you multiply that by 10 years, that would be $30 to 40 million."
Sen. Sammuel Sanes asked if the landfill would close on time. Hobson said he understood from speaking with the V.I. Waste Management Authority, which oversees the landfill, that they were on schedule to establish a transfer station for shipping out trash and to stop accepting refuse by the deadline.
Though it appears before the Legislature to discuss its budget, the Port Authority does not receive funding from the V.I. Government, but is financed by a combination of federal grants and airport and marine terminal fees. Its 2010 budget is projected to be $76.1 million, of which $37.2 million is for capital projects, Hobson said. It expects to generate $45.1 million of that from fees and $30.1 million from federal grants.
The bulk of the $37 million capital spending projects are for the Cyril E. King Airport, with the largest project being a $15 million runway rehabilitation and extension. In 2010 the St. Thomas airport will also spend: $2.6 million to begin to fix up the baggage claim terminal, $1.5 million for electrical work and a backup generator, $1 million for street and parking lot lighting, $1 million to replace the roof, $750,000 for a new cargo building sprinkler system, $700,000 to install a fire alarm system on the second floor of the terminal along with several smaller projects.
At St. Croix’s Henry E. Rohlsen Airport, the largest single capital project for next year is $600,000 for designs and plans for a new fire and rescue building, followed by $500,000 to design 7,600 feet of runway overlay, according to Hobson’s testimony. St. Croix is also expecting to receive two new fire trucks, and St. Thomas one, with all three trucks costing a total of $1.4 million.
In 2009, the St. Thomas airport budgeted $11.3 million for capital projects and the St. Croix airport $1.7 million, according to the figures provided to the Legislature’s post-auditor.
The Port Authority had an operating loss of $13.5 million in 2008 and expects a smaller loss for 2009, but this coming year, revenues from plane landings and ship arrivals are down due to the recession, Hobson said.
"The authority is forecasting a decrease in airport revenues of about five to nine percent," he said. Marine revenues are projected to fall less. As austerity measures, the authority is freezing salaries, not hiring and changing the employee share of medical insurance premiums from zero percent up to 20 percent, Hobson said.
