The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) adopted new grant assurances following a public hearing on March 13. The recently adopted airport grant rules will help protect public investment and ensure airports receiving state and federal grants maintain and operate facilities safely, efficiently.
WSDOT’s Airport Aid Grant Program provides about $1 million each year to airports for crucial projects. The program also uses state and local matching funds to leverage millions in federal dollars. Funding for the grant program comes from aviation users – an 11-cent fee on aviation fuel and a portion of the state aircraft registration fee and excise tax.
“Grant assurances are an important part of WSDOT’s Airport Aid Grant program,” said Tristan Atkins, WSDOT director of aviation. “We have limited state airport aid grant funds, and that means we have to choose airport investments wisely and be transparent to the public.”
The new grant assurances will protect the state’s investments in the aviation system. The result of recommendations by the Washington State Aviation Planning Council, the grant assurances were modeled after Federal Aviation Administration assurances and vetted through a technical advisory committee and airports.
WSDOT’s new grant assurances, Washington Administrative Code 468-260, continue all provisions of the previous grant agreement and add components for compatible land-use planning, public hearings, pavement maintenance, non-discrimination, environmental stewardship and a host of other programmatic improvements. They will be published in the WAC April 9.
More information is available at:www.wsdot.wa.gov/aviation/Grants/newgrantassurances.htm
