The Baton Rouge Metro Airport is asking the Metro Council to approve an increase in the fees it collects on rental cars at the airport in order to fund some $6 million in improvements to the main parking garage. The issue is scheduled to come before the council at its meeting Wednesday.
Improvements to the 19-year-old garage are long overdue, says Airport Director Anthony Marino. They will include repairing columns in the garage, addressing leaks coming from some of the pre-stressed concrete slabs, as well as the addition of new lighting and as many as 45 new security cameras. Marino says the airport has not had any crime-related incidents in the garage that would warrant more cameras, but he wants to be proactive.
“I want cameras everywhere and I want to light it up,” he says. “We haven’t had any problems. So let’s not wait until we have problems.”
The improvements and repairs would be paid for over 25 years through the customer facility charge. Customers currently pay a $4.90 rental car fee at the airport, which is lower than fees in many comparable airports, Marino says. The increase, if approved by the council, would raise the fee to $7.30 until 2019, when it would gradually begin to come back down.
“It’s a progressive regression,” Marino says. “You have to remember, though, the airport is self sustaining. We’re not subsidized by the city-parish and we’re trying to keep all our debt here at the airport and paid for through revenues we can generate.”
If approved by the council, the plan calls for the fee to be reduced to $7 between 2019 and 2022; and then further reduced to $5.75 between 2023 and 2026. The rate will return to the current $4.90 for the decade beginning 2027.
The Metro Council convenes at 4 p.m. Wednesday on the third floor of City Hall, 222 St. Louis St. See the full agenda. —Stephanie Riegel
