Port transfers FAA entitlement funds to Deer Park airport project

The Port of Whitman County at its meeting last week made a decision to transfer fund entitlements to the City of Deer Park for its airport taxiway project. The total amount transferred equalled $1,173.

The entitlement funds come from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and are not actual money the Port has on hand. Each year, airports are entitled to a certain amount of funds from the FAA, which can be saved for up to four years before they expire.

“It's just money sitting on the FAA books that would otherwise be expired,” said Debbie Snell, Port properties and development manager. “It's all on paper. It's not actually in our accounts.”

The Port of Whitman County each year is entitled to $150,000 from the FAA.

“We save up on our entitlements every year for four years and then do a big project,” said Snell. “If you save it up for four years, that's a nice tidy sum.”

The Port's transfer of entitlements last week came from expiring 2014 funds.

“We had $1,173 of our entitlement left over, and we did not have a project we could use this money on,” said Snell.

Rather than let it expire and not be used at all, the Port decided to let it go toward another project.

“You might as well put it to a project that could benefit,” said Snell. “It's just a gesture of good will on our part.”

Port Executive Joe Poiré echoed this.

“It's lose it period if you don't use it,” he said. “So it's way better to give it to another airport.”

Snell explained that there are multiple ways to transfer entitlement funds. One way is to just outright transfer the funds, as the Port did last week. The other way is to loan the entitlement.

“You can agree to loan your entitlement with the expectation that it will be paid back through another entitlement down the road,” said Snell. She added that the Port just transferred the entitlement because it was a small amount.

Snell also said the Port has transferred entitlements before, but not recently. She also said the Port has never received a transfer of entitlements.

“We've never been in a position to have a project that big where we needed it,” said Snell.

Snell added that with the Port having completed its large runway redesign project nearly two years ago, she does not anticipate the Port ever being in the position to receive entitlements from other entities.

The Port of Whitman County acquired the airport in 2004 and went to work to improve it and make it more attractive for businesses and pilots.

Since that time, the Port has built 11 hangars – four private and seven public – and completed taxiway reconstruction in 2007, apron expansion and tie down construction in 2012-13, the runway redesign work in 2014 and then the construction of the runway redesign in 2015.

Future projects at the airport will be smaller in size, said Snell.

“We'll design our projects to be affordable,” she said.