State funds for inspections and runway improvements at Ohio’s smaller public airports, including county airports, are at risk as a result of the state’s worsening shortfall for the two-year budget period that begins July 1.
The Ohio House’s proposed general revenue budget had allocated $1.2 million for that category in each year of the two-year budget. But the Senate’s version of the budget deleted all of it, which will leave it to a legislative conference committee to work out the differences. State government revenue collections are falling far short of expectations, because of the economic downturn.
“The House budget was a billion dollars short when we received it,” state Sen. John Carey, R-Wellston, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Wednesday, June 10. “We had to find ways to go through it and make up the deficit.”
In Montgomery County, Moraine Airpark and Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport are eligible to receive money from the fund. Wright Brothers Airport, owned by the city of Dayton, also receives federal funding, city aviation director Iftikhar Ahmad said.
Carey said he would be willing to consider trying to restore some of the local airport money. But state lawmakers expect to receive even worse, revised budget projections on Thursday. It is difficult to predict whether any budget cuts could be restored, when deeper cuts may be required, state Rep. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, chairman of the House Finance Committee, said Wednesday in Columbus.
Don Rauch , president of the Clinton County Airport Authority which operates the county’s airport, said he is concerned. The money is used to resurface runways and taxiways and remove obstructions such as nearby trees, he said.
Rauch said he wants aviation to get “as much as we can, realizing that there is a budget crisis.”
The Senate’s version of the budget left some money for investment in rail and transit projects, said Scott Varner, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation. The department will look into working with legislators to allocate some of the rail and transit money for aviation projects, Varner said.
The general revenue budget is smaller than the department’s separate $6 billion budget funded by federal dollars and the state gasoline tax, Varner said. Legislators approved that budget in April.
Federal economic-stimulus money also has funded improvements at smaller Ohio airports, including the Findlay and Ohio University airports, Varner said.
Staff writer William Hershey contributed to this report.
