Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Airport Finance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Winnebago leaders debate proposed airport rate reset to close levy gap; staff propose modest revenue increases
Summary
Airport Director Jim Shell proposed updates to Chapter 21 to raise hangar rents, land lease rates and the fuel flowage fee (proposal: fuel flowage from 10 to 15 cents/gallon). Staff estimated roughly $102,000 in new annual revenue and framed the update as the first of several steps to reduce a roughly $796,000 operating levy for the airport; supervisors raised concerns about study methodology, tenant notice and EAA lease terms.
County staff and Airport Director Jim Shell presented a proposed ordinance update to Chapter 21 that would reset hangar rents, land rental rates and the airport fuel flowage fee to align with market comparators and the airport's amenities.
Shell said the airport manages roughly 94 hangar units and 31 land leases, maintains a waiting list (about 88 names) and provides a set of unique services (four paved runways, an on-site control tower, ARFF crash/rescue equipment and a fixed-base operator). He described a market rent analysis by Airport Business Solutions and internal staff work on fuel and land rates. The fuel flowage rate (a fee paid by the fixed-base operator) is proposed to increase from 10 cents to 15 cents per gallon; Shell said that a five-cent rise on about 800,000 gallons would add roughly $40,000 annually. Proposed hangar rent resets would add about $62,000, for a combined incremental revenue of roughly $102,000 a year.
"We're striving toward becoming self-sustaining as an airport," Shell said, noting the airport's 2026 levy request of about $796,000 and that the proposed changes would close a portion of that gap. He described plans for a three-year CPI adjustment cadence after a market reset.
The board's debate was robust. Several supervisors said tenants were not adequately notified of the scale or methodology of the consultant's recommendations and called the market study incomplete; others argued that hangar rents had been deferred for decades and a reset is overdue. Supervisor Gabbert, chair of the aviation committee, voted against the measure at committee level and said the $23,500 market study lacked sufficient supporting detail. In contrast, Supervisor Buck and other supporters argued that market comparisons and the waiting list supported a modest reset.
EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) and other large tenants were discussed in the context of lease revenue; staff said EAA currently pays roughly $300,000 in annual land-lease revenue under a long-term lease amended in 2019 and that the county is negotiating stormwater cost allocation with the City of Oshkosh as a separate avenue to reduce airport costs.
Staff committed to include the consultant's full analysis and a unit-count table (number of hangars per category and construction year) in the March 17 board packet and to offer hangar tours to supervisors. The airport item was set for a March 17 business meeting for possible adoption; no final board vote was taken at the special meeting.
