Board Seeks Voter Approval To Eliminate City's Role In Handling Airport Manager Finances

NEBRASKA CITY – Nebraska City voters will decide an airport funding measures at the primary election on May 12.

Airport Board Chairman Arlin Stutheit said approval of the ballot initiative will allow the airport board to  handle financing of the fixed based operator and airport manager independent of the city.

Stutheit: “We’re not going to increase our spending. You have to be familiar with restricted funds in order, I guess, to probably understand that.”

He said the concept of restricted funds was established into Nebraska law in the ‘70s to put a lid on the amount of tax funding the airport authority can collect, but some tax collections are excluded. To the point,  taxes through an inter local agreement with the city are exempt from the lid.

The airport authority currently raises about $52,000 from the inter local agreement with the city.

Stutheit: “We raise taxes. We pay it directly to the city and the city pays it to the contractor. In other words, it’s a pass through for the city. We raise the funds. The taxes are charged to the airport authority, of course. They are paid to us because it is an inter local agreement which falls outside the bounds of restrictive funding, so we raise the funds, we pay it to the city and the city pays it to the contractor. We’re trying to eliminate the clumsy effort.”

He said the ballot initiative is revenue neutral.

Stutheit: “This is not an increase in the amount of tax we collect, but it is a difference in the way the taxes are collected.”

Stutheit: “If this initiative passes we will eliminate that inter local agreement with the city and we’ll raise the funds, approximately $48,000, directly through Airport Authority.”

He said the funds are raised to provide a fixed-based operator and airport manager.

He said the fixed-based operator sells fuel, assigns hangars and maintains the municipal airport.