Branson cuts performance payment to airport

Branson’s Board of Aldermen amended of the city’s 2015 budget in a regular meeting held Tuesday at City Hall.

The 4-1 vote authorized the year’s first biannual payment to the Branson Airport Transportation Development District in the amount of $101,220.

Branson Economic Development Director Garrett Anderson said according to the performance agreement with the airport, the city pays $8.24 per passenger who disembarks there. Anderson added the payment approved Tuesday covers travel July 1 through Dec. 31.

Payment will come from the city’s tourism fund in order to keep Branson’s general fund – currently budgeted at about $15.5 million ­– above the statutorily required reserve level of 20 percent. Anderson said the city’s target reserve level, determined by the board, is 30 percent.

Tuesday’s payment represents a drop of 78 percent from the amount paid this time last year, when the city issued $463,022 to the airport covering July through December 2013.

Data from the U.S. Department of Transportation and ticketing information from the airport show more than 60 percent of airport passengers – a little more than 12,000 people – visited Branson during the second half of last year. No passenger data was available for 2013.

Because the per-passenger rate remained unchanged, Anderson said the only variable to the total amount is the number of passengers.

“Given the departure of Southwest Airlines, that’s to be expected,” Anderson said of the decrease.

According to a staff report on the bill, a little more than $2.8 million has been paid by the city to the airport under the agreement since July 16, 2010.