Since Juneau began collecting Marine Passenger Fees, the Juneau International Airport has been fighting for a share in those funds.
Why would an airport be eligible for cruise ship fees? The airport says it serves those passengers, too.
This year, the airport had to push to stay on the city manager’s list to receive funds.
The airport had developed a formula that used the number of cruise ship passengers in Juneau and a McDowell report figuring how many of those passengers use the airport. Johnson said there were 10,790 cruise ship passengers that flew out of JNU last year. Additionally, 8 percent of the cruise ship passengers use flight-seeing opportunities that launch out of Juneau. Last year, that accounted for more than 70,000 passengers.
What they also don’t include in the formula are the Customs and Border Patrol functions that operate out of the airport, including clearing cargo that goes to ships and clearing crew members going home.
The airport is slated for nearly $160,000 of the $4.6 million in passenger fee proceeds.
Airport manager Jeannie Johnson told the board this week that in the city’s initial formula that designates an allotment for general government operations, the airport was excluded. She believes that was an oversight.
“There is a possibility I will have to go to the Assembly and prove it was an oversight,” Johnson told the airport board. “There is no way they’re going to open that formula back up. Then the cruise industry will want to put it under the microscope.”
Johnson said that while the city Finance Committee did move forward the Marine Passenger Fee proceeds list, there was still skepticism by some Assembly members. She said Assemblywoman Karen Crane felt that the airport shouldn’t get funds to compensate for operations they’re already being reimbursed for. Johnson said she cleared up the misunderstanding — that the airport actually does not get passenger facility fees for float plane passengers on the pond.
Some of the scrutiny at the airport comes from a broader scrutiny by the cruise ship industry, Johnson said. She said the industry has questioned spending funds on downtown crossing guards, downtown cleaning and restroom maintenance. Johnson is referring to a February letter from the Alaska Cruise Association, which among other objections, felt that those services are provided to everyone downtown, not just cruise ship passengers.
“The fact that the services also benefit those passengers who visit downtown (and who, by the way, already contribute to the local economy in a variety of ways) does not provide a basis for charging a fee …,” the letter states.
Johnson also said that the mayor indicated he felt they were “stretching it” in justifying airport allocations.
Johnson said that future years, they may have to stipulate specific projects funds will be going toward. She said this past year funds went into the airport terminal project — specific areas of which were put in to help cruise ship passengers, including a canopy and another doorway.
Board member Jerry Godkin said it’s been a “great source of pain” to consider giving those funds to the airport to balance its budget. Johnson disagrees that those funds are used to balance the budget.
Board member Butch Laughlin said part of the problem is that not all Assembly members are well informed about what the airport provides.
“They’re not thinking what we’re doing at the airport,” he said. “They’re thinking downtown. They’re not thinking we’re a part of it.”
• Contact reporter Sarah Day at 523-2279 or at sarah.day@juneauempire.com
Comments (13)
Add commentWhy get paid twice?
Air travel and cargo already pays a boarding fee to the Federal Gov't and those funds are allocated by the FAA for airport activities.Why should the airport be collecting twice?
so docks and harbors should be asking for money from the airport
By the same logic then Docks and Harbors and the other cruise ship docks should be asking for revenues from the airport passenger facility fees - their own version of the head tax because the airport passengers impact the docks? What about the ferry passengers who use the airport? The logic used to collect this fee from the docks for the airport is rediculous. The airport passengers pay a fee to use the airport and a cruise ship passenger pays a fee to use the docks. The fees are used to enhance these respective facilities. How would you like it if you flew into the airport in Seattle and part of the tax you paid at the airport went to pay for a new crane at the seaport? This is government gone awry and is likely illegal.
Everybody wants money
Use of the passenger fees is not per se illegal. But there needs to be an obvious connection between the activities at the airport and the marine passenger. The link in the past has been fairly uncertain but that has not stopped the airport from trying to obtain marine passenger fee funds.
One obvious question here is whether the marine passenger metric the airport is using is based on passengers arriving in Juneau or departing from Juneau that utilize large passenger vessels. If the number includes marine passengers that use the small cruise vessels, then the metric is suspect. The only marine passengers that pay the fee are the folks that are on the large cruise vessels, so counting marine passengers on small vessles that arrive or depart from the Juneau airport is dubious.
Then there is the problem with air passengers paying for arrival and departure at Juneau's airport per federal law. All things considered, former CBJ Assembly member Randy Wannamaker was correct when he expressed caution about deflecting marine passenger fees to the airport. Everyone wants a piece of the action but the sound thing to do here is go slow until a really good justification exists to use the marine fees at the airport.
Insanity
Giving cruise revenues to the airport is about as off the wall as it can get. The fees paid at the airport are not being shared with the cruise industry. Nor should they be. Yet the airport is getting part of the cruise passenger fee. Who designed this insane idea?
Rules
There are rules about spending head tax receipts. These rules are also known as federal law.
The city's interpretation that these laws allow funding the airport are convenient and unique. Let's hope we don't chase these silly arrangments through the court system like the misguided "bonghits" case and get back to respecting the rule of law regardless of whether we like it or not.
CaptNoah
CaptNoah, you are hilarious!
Excellent point.
What, the exorbitant fares we pay already isn't enough to fill the coffers? I think the Juneau International Airport and Alaska Airlines will do just fine without a share of the Cruise Ship head-tax fees.
Heli Passengers Pay No CBJ Taxes For Tickets
The biggest impact by 70,000 passengers on airport operations are the heli-flightseeing operations operated at the airport. Few if any of these heli passengers pay 5% CBJ sales tax for their tickets because they are sold with their cruise ticket online or else onboard the ship, neither of which charge CBJ sales tax.
A 5% tax on a $200 ticket would easily pay the fees that the airport claims, but that is not an option. Yet these are not marine passenger impacts, they are heli passenger impacts. There must be some way that Temsco and the other airport heli companies can collect and pay what the airport claims.
Goofy Logic.
If the 'Airport' requires more operating funds, it should either raise it's own existing fees, or add another 'Aviation Passenger Tax' to cover it's own butt. This idea of robbing the Marine system is nothing more than jealousy over funding in a rival transportation system.
Manage your own transportation system. Quit whining about someone eles's golden bucket.
pure greed
omg.. how much more can alaska airlines suck out of our wallets.. the 20.00 PER suitcase fee, gas fee, tsa groping fee, walking fee, sitting fee, bread and water meals fee.. and HIGH ticket fees.. greedy suckers...
Hey, Teacher....
Where does the article mention Alaska Airlines? Did you actually read it?
Alaska Airlines has nothing
Alaska Airlines has nothing at all to do with this.
Sure fire remedy for Alaskan Teacher....
Move to a large gateway city........
helicopter traffic..
actually accounts for close to 70% of the airport operations (at least that's what a friend who works in the tower said). There are 3 helicopter operators with fleets of 4 to 10 helicopters - all of which operate in "waves". The airport doesn't collect anything more than rent from the likes of Temsco, Coastal, and North Star. Same goes with Wings of Alaska and Air Ex. Yet when you fly Alaska Airlines, you pay a PFC - Passenger Facility Charge.
I think its time for the airport to rethink their approach and find a way to charge the PFC to Part 91 and 135 operators.... that will keep this airport afloat for years and years to come.