Cameron County’s general aviation airport will benefit greatly from 2nd SPI causeway

Rio Grande Guardian
BY RON WHITLOCK AND MARIO MUÑOZ
OCTOBER 8, 2023

AUSTIN, Texas – Cameron County’s general aviation airport will benefit greatly from the construction of a second causeway to South Padre Island, according to Cameron County’s commissioner for Precinct Three.

David Garza spoke in support of additional funding for general aviation airports in the public comment portion of a recent Texas Transportation Commission meeting in Austin. One of the agenda items dealt with additional funds for aviation appropriated by the 88th Legislature. 

Garza started his remarks by saying he has had many meetings and encounters with the TxDOT’s aviation division. 

“We have been the recipients especially of the grant program over the course of years.”

Garza said that when he first became a county commissioner he “inherited an overgrown, pretty much abandoned airport.” He said that with with the help of the TxDOT’s aviation department, Cameron County has been able to clean up the Port Isabel-Cameron County Airport.

“We’ve been able to, at this point, clean it up to the point where it is immaculate,” Garza said. “We’ve done major capital projects that they (the aviation division) has been part of.”

Garza referenced state Sen. Robert Nichols, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation. Nichols had earlier spoken about funding for general aviation airports at the TTC meeting.

“From our perspective, it’s very evident that he and Chairman Canales were very receptive to hearing our needs and (the need to) increase the funding.”

State Rep. Terry Canales is chairman of the House Committee on Transportation.

“General aviation airports play a key economic role in our communities,” Garza said. “They are critical. They’re unheralded, pretty much, in the state of Texas. If you don’t fly in or fly out or know about them… it’s not on your radar.”

Garza said the Port Isabel-Cameron County Airport “was not on my radar” when he first became a commissioner.

“But, over the course of time, in the last 20 some years, it’s been very evident what it (the airport) can do. The significance to us of improving our airport with the help of TxDOT is that it is a termini on the inland side of the 2nd Access to the island,” Garza said.

“So, we anticipate huge growth of that airport moving into the future. We anticipate With their (the TxDOT aviation division’s) help, that we will be able to be prepared and ready to start economically developing that area of our county.”

Garza concluded his remarks by saying he wanted to thank TxDOT’s aviation division. 

“The only time I see these guys is at the aviation conferences every year, and, as always, we ask them for things. And it looks like this time with the help of the Legislature and your (the TTC’s) approval, they’re going to be able to help many small general aviation airports throughout the state of Texas.”

Garza said general aviation airports “contribute very significantly to the economy of all of us in the state. So just thank you in advance for this item.”

In his remarks at the TTC meeting, Sen. Nichols said this has been “a fantastic year for transportation,” thanks to the support of the state leadership and the Legislature.

“When I say transportation, I mean many forms of transportation, not just the roadways. It was almost a record for the highway program.”

Nichols said he wanted to focus his remarks on two particular items. One was funding for Texas seaports and the other was general aviation airports. Nichols said that while spending on general aviation airports was a small item in TxDOT’s budget, they were vital for rural Texas.

“It’s a lifeline for economic activity in the rural areas of the state to have general aviation airports. We’ve got one in just about every county,” Nichols said.

Nichols said he started paying particular attention to general aviation airports when he was a TTC commissioner. He was the only pilot of the five-member board.

“They just kind of looked to me for that. But, as I looked at the funding, it had not been adjusted for inflation in a couple of decades. So, the purchasing power had dropped. Then it started being earmarked away, and there was so little money for general aviation airports,” Nichols recalled. “Projects that needed to be done a decade ago.”

Nichols said this was not the fault of TTC.

“So what I did (as chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation) is, I looked into that particular portion of the budget. I know y’all had asked for an increase, but I looked at the projects that didn’t get funded because of inflation and all these other things.”

Nichols said the 88th Legislature has provided a record amount of funding for general aviation – $94 million. 

Nichols said he was asked by the chair of the House Committee on Appropriation and the chair of the the Senate Committee on Finance, if there were enough projects should the funding be committed.

“I said, I think so. I hope so. I’m asking y’all (TTC) to please get those (projects) committed. I know you’re considering, on the local share percentage, kind of changing some of that. I think that would probably have a significant (impact),” Nichols said.

“A lot of these counties are, like I said… they’re all rural. But some of them don’t have the resources like others do. So that one is kind of out there. I’m kind of on a limb on that on. I know we need it. But, your aviation division is kind of small and all sudden we’re asking them to do five times what they’ve ever done.”

Nichols added: “It ($94 million) sounds like a small amount of money compared to everything else but it is really very critical.”