SALISBURY — The county will be the sole taxing authority of the Rowan County airport at the end of the month after a bill overwhelmingly passed the N.C. House Monday night.
The airport de-annexation legislation, S.B. 269, ends a months-long debate over the city’s 2004 annexation of the county-owned airport. The measure passed its third reading in the House 94-16.
Rep. Carl Ford (R-China Grove) gave a brief introduction of Sen. Andrew Brock’s bill on the floor about 7:30 p.m.
Ford introduced the initial legislation on the House side earlier this spring, but Brock’s identical bill passed the Senate first and was then transferred to the House.
Ford said the bill will go into effect at the end of the month. Because it’s a local bill — specific only to Rowan County — it does not require the governor’s signature.
The freshman lawmaker said the airport will bring in more economic development now that only one party has taxing authority.
“I’m glad it passed. It’s been a long, long hard battle. I’ve had several folks congratulate me on the floor because they know how many committees this thing has been through and how many questions I’ve answered,” Ford said with a laugh.
“It just clears the way when you have one taxing authority. It makes it simpler. Most businessmen like things as simple as they can get them,” Ford said.
For the moment, the city and county each levy a 40-cent tax rate at the airport, bringing in about $86,000 each. With the city now out of the picture, the county said it plans to charge airplane owners its full rate of 62 cents per $100 valuation — 18 cents less than the combined rate of 80 cents.
Commissioners also want to extend the 5,500-foot runway at the airport to make it more competitive with surrounding municipal airports. Rowan Airport hosts about 90 planes with a property tax value of $21 million.
Mayor Paul Woodson said he doesn’t mind the legislature’s vote if the county holds up its plan to boost economic development through the airport.
“We put up a fight,” Woodson said. “We felt we should maintain part of it for economic growth — however it doesn’t bother me if the county will do what they say and expand that runway by 500 more feet and help economic development. If they’ll do that. If they take that money and use it for the general budget, that’ll bother me.”
Vice Chairman Craig Pierce, the former airport advisory committee chair, said he wasn’t celebrating the bill’s passage Monday night.
“We knew that this was going to be a sore spot for the town of Salisbury. We didn’t expect them to just roll over and play dead,” Pierce said. “I don’t look at this as a victory. I look at this as a position that the county needed to be in with this airport.”
Still, Pierce said the legislation won’t change the county’s plans for the immediate future.
“We’ve already got things in the works. We’ve been working on those diligently,” he said. “I think it’ll make things easier for us to get things out at the airport passed now that we are the sole owner and the sole funding agent at the airport.”
Contact reporter Nathan Hardin at 704-797-4246.