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AVER ,o I l A <br />Office of the <br />INDIAN RIVER COUNTY <br />ADMINISTRATOR <br />Jason E. Brown, County Administrator <br />Michael C. Zito, Assistant County Administrator <br />MEMORANDUM <br />TO: Members of the Board of County Commissioners <br />FROM: Kathleen Keenan <br />Legislative Affairs and Communications Manager <br />DATE: February 8, 2022 <br />SUBJECT: Resolution in Support of the Adoption of House Bill 631 and Senate Bill <br />780 as Filed in the 2022 Florida Legislative Session <br />BACKGROUND <br />Florida's public -use airports rely heavily on funding provided by both the Federal Aviation Administration <br />(FAA) and Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) for their large capital improvement projects. <br />These projects include airfield infrastructure and facilities (runway, taxiway and parking apron pavement <br />rehabilitation), airfield equipment, and landside road and building projects. However, regardless of the <br />funding source, the airport sponsor is always responsible for providing matching funding from the airport <br />or sponsor budget. <br />Under current state law, FDOT may provide up to 50 percent of eligible project costs to commercial service <br />airports. General aviation airports may receive up to 80 percent funding from FDOT for eligible costs so <br />long as the airport has no scheduled commercial service. The majority of these projects are maintenance of <br />existing airport infrastructure to assure their continued safe operating condition. <br />Proposed legislation has been filed in both the House and Senate to amend section 332.007, Florida Statutes, <br />to allow commercial service or general aviation airports, like Vero Beach Regional Airport, with fewer than <br />100,000 passenger boardings per year to not be subject to the reduced grant contributions. Representative <br />Erin Grall has filed House Bill 631 (Airport Funding) and Senator Travis Hutson has filed Senate Bill 780 <br />(Airports). This legislation as proposed would authorize funding by FDOT for up to 80 percent of eligible <br />project costs for airports classified as commercial service or general aviation with fewer than 100,000 <br />annual passenger boardings. FDOT funding will continue to come from the Aviation Grant fund and annual <br />passenger boardings will be determined by the FAA. The bill has an effective date of July 1, 2022. <br />The City of Vero Beach has reached out to Indian River County requesting support for this proposed <br />legislation. <br />162 <br />