S.C. Agency Pushes Envelope for Airport Funding

The vanguard of aviation in South Carolina is mobilizing for a long couple of years, with an end goal of funneling millions more tax dollars into the state's airports.

It's not going to be easy. It's going to take a lot of politicking. It might go nowhere.

But the S.C. Aeronautics Commission thinks the future economic well-being of the state depends on a substantial increase in the amount of money it has access to.

"We're woefully short in our funding," said Jim Hamilton, vice chairman of the commission. "Airports are the recognized cornerstone for economic development. CEOs don't come to town on the Greyhound."

It breaks down like this: The state's Aeronautics Division -- a branch of the S.C. Department of Commerce -- receives about $3 million each year. Just under half of that is supplied by Commerce. The rest of the money comes directly from the state aviation fuel tax.

On the other hand, Virginia -- whom pilots say has "the premier aeronautics division in the country" -- hands its Department of Aviation more than $30 million each year.

Virginia is not South Carolina. More than 7 million people live there, compared with about 4 million here. That state has 67 airports; this one has 60. But the growing feeling in one part of Columbia is that what Virginia has done can be used to guide the development of aviation here.

"The overall idea of the funding system they have in place is a good idea," said Michael O'Donnell, director of the S.C. Aeronautics Division. "We're looking into increasing the funding for the state's 60 airports, and Virginia could be a good model. We feel that the funding system (here) was created a long time ago, and we want to find new ways to update that."

The differences in aviation on either side of the Tar Heel State are not limited to dollars and cents. Virginia also:

--Has its Aviation Department report directly to its governor through its transportation secretary.

--Offers financial incentives to its airports that complete voluntary added-security measures.

--Established an "ambassador program" where people who visit all 67 airports and the state's four aviation museums are given a leather jacket.

"Some people are even driving in," said Cliff Burnette, director of Virginia's Airport Services Division.

Burnette was in the Palmetto State recently to give the Aeronautics Commission a primer on what Virginia has done.

Hamilton, who manages Columbia Owens Downtown Airport, said he'd like "to cherry-pick their ideas."

"What we have to do (is) get our act together, decide what it is we want to campaign for," he said. "We're going to have to sell the merits of the program. But to think we could increase our budget tenfold in one attempt is foolhardy."

Hamilton has rocked the aviation boat before.

He caused friction in 2003 when he proclaimed, "if left unchallenged -- the Department of Commerce will totally eviscerate the Division of Aeronautics." In his mind, Commerce had been slowly dismantling aeronautics for a decade. He began a letter-writing campaign to state legislators to halt that, which he believes was successful.

"We've stopped the hemorrhage," Hamilton said. "Now, what we're going to do is rebuild the agency -- maybe not to where it was, but certainly where it can rebuild the aviation infrastructure of this state."

The S.C. Aeronautics Commission today primarily is responsible for funding maintenance and capital projects at the various airports here, and it acts as a vehicle that supplements state and local funding to those airports.

The agency, for instance, in the past committed just under $14,000 to extend a runway in Anderson (a $275,000-plus project), paid more than $183,000 to help build an air traffic tower at Hilton Head Airport (a $1.6 million project), and put in more than $2,100 to install lighting at Spartanburg Downtown Memorial Airport (an $85,000 project). It's been involved in scores of other projects.