A mid-May telephone poll to determine support for a new airport terminal came back positive, but only narrowly so. As a result, it will be 2016 before that approximately $40 million question goes to the voters.
Between now and then, city and county officials will spend more time justifying to voters the need for the terminal. And staff will work to determine what if any existing airport fees can used to reduce the needed $40 million bond amount.
Poll results were presented to the City Council and the county commissioners jointly last week by the polling firm. Initial cost estimates to move the terminal to the east side of the runway, more than double its size, add another gate and a larger parking lot, come to about $83 million. $40 million of that must be local revenue.
Fifty percent of total respondents were in favor of or leaned toward supporting a new terminal. After hearing the arguments for and against, that percentage climbed one point.
Support for a new terminal was strongest among men 18-64. Support was lower among women, from those of both genders who are older and among those who have lived in the county longest.
Eighty percent of total respondents said that they were familiar with the terminal issue, a number the polling company’s representative said was unusually high. We credit that to usually engaged La Plata County residents, and to the City Council’s and the county commissioners’ efforts at outreach.
The 400 respondents were selected from the voter rolls. Two thirds were reached by land line, one third by cellphone. Half were male, half female. One third live in Durango, two thirds in rural La Plata County, Bayfield or Ignacio.
One in six use the airport monthly; 60 percent occasionally. Three-fourths use it multiple times a year; twenty-five percent not all at all.
Fifty-seven percent said they thought that the current local tax burden was acceptable; 54 percent were comfortable with the county’s direction.
Funding the terminal by an additional sales tax was favored to a much greater degree than by assessing a mill levy. “Everyone would pay,” was the strongest reason that it be a sales tax.
(City Manager Ron LeBlanc did suggest the wording of the question about using a mill levy, which would cost 85 cents per month per $100,000 residential valuation, might have created some confusion. Most people think of property taxes in an annual amount.)
Elected officials now have a challenge if they want to be successful at the polls. Given the familiarity with the issue, there are not a lot of additional voters to be supportive. Work will have to be directed toward those who are now uncertain or opposed.
One way might be to reduce the $40 million, either with other revenues or a more modest expansion. Almost everyone agrees it is best to construct a more efficient terminal on the east side of the runway rather than additional patchwork at its current location. That will position future terminal services to grow further and to be paid for from cash flow. What is needed, terminal advocates say, is the “bump” that bonding will bring.
Even if a successful vote occurred tomorrow, it might be five years before the terminal is occupied. Planning involving multiple federal agencies takes time. Then comes construction.
A new Durango-La Plata County Airport terminal is overdue, and in the coming year or so, we expect a lot of effort to go into making one possible.
