The federal government giveth, and the federal government taketh away — and maybe it giveth again?

After announcing earlier this month that it would provide Yellowstone Regional Airport with a whopping $18 million worth of emergency aid — enough to cover years of airport operations — the Federal Aviation Administration quietly cut that figure back to $11.7 million, airport leaders say.

It appears the Cody airport will still receive enough federal aid to cover its next four years of operations plus other projects, but exactly how much money the airport will receive still remains in flux.

Airport leaders say they’ve received assurances from regional FAA officials that the agency will try to deliver the full $18,017,498 originally set aside for Cody. However, YRA leaders say they’ve also been told they need to act quickly or they risk losing the money.

“This has been a very complex and confusing entire process,” YRA Manager Bob Hooper said at a special Thursday airport board meeting.

The meeting was called solely to come up with a preliminary plan for the millions of dollars of CARES Act aid. At the top of the proposed list was funding for four years of operations. Other items included: a new $1.75 million quick turnaround rental car wash facility that was already in the works, $4.2 million to install new ground base equipment to improve the approach to the airport and $8.07 million to expand the terminal. All of the projects must go through environmental reviews and be completed within four years, which Hooper said makes for a tight schedule.

However, the idea of even tentatively divvying up such a large amount of money on such short notice didn’t sit right with some of the board members on Thursday.

“I can’t imagine that we’re going to spend $12 million in 30 minutes,” said board member Heidi Rasmussen. “I mean, this just seems insane.”

Agreed board member Jordan Jolley, “That’s a lot of money to be in a hurry to fill out.”

After hearing from callers on the line that the public also wants to weigh in on how the millions of dollars are spent, the board ultimately decided to schedule another special meeting today (Tuesday).

Board members did reach a consensus on two uses for the money: the already-planned “quick turnaround” rental car wash facility and $5 million for operations and maintenance; that’s enough to cover salaries, utilities and other ongoing routine expenses for the next four years.

Not only will that allow Yellowstone Regional Airport to bank whatever revenue it collects over the coming years, it won’t need funds from the City of Cody and Park County for that time period — and potentially beyond.

In the current fiscal year, the airport required $345,565 from the city and county to balance its budget, with the city paying 60% and the county 40%. Assuming the airport would have run a similar deficit in the coming years, the federal dollars will wind up saving the city and county a combined total of more than $1.3 million between now and 2024.

“I feel like we owe it to the city and the county to be responsible that way,” Jolley said of putting as much of the money toward operations and maintenance as possible. The reality, he said, is that the City of Cody and Park County may not get as big of a boost of federal aid.

A surprising windfall

That Yellowstone Regional Airport was initially awarded $18 million — roughly six times its current budget — came as a shock to local officials. Hooper, the airport manager, called Cody “the lucky recipient.”

YRA received more money than far busier airports, such as Jackson ($16.49 million), Bozeman ($15.45 million) and Billings ($12.72 million). That same scenario — of small airports coming out ahead of large airports — played out all across the country. For instance, the relatively small West Yellowstone airport wound up being the top CARES Act recipient in Montana with $17.89 million.

The FAA press office did not respond to an inquiry from the Tribune about the discrepancy earlier this month, but the administration did respond when Politico inquired last week.

“Comparing the final allocations among airports based solely on enplanements does not accurately reflect the totality of factors included in the formula as required by the statute,” the FAA told the publication.

Only 50% of the FAA’s formula is based on boardings. The other half considers an airport’s debt and savings.

However, airport consultant Mark Sixel told InvestigateTV that a problem arose with a part of the formula that compares each facility’s debt to cash reserve ratio. For airports with no debt — like YRA — the equation spits out a “divide by zero” error, so the FAA put in an artificial placeholder to fix it, Sixel told InvestigateTV.

“If you had $1 in your bank account and zero debt, you ended up with about $17.5 million in additional funds into your grant program,” Sixel said.

At least one member of Congress has taken note.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., complained to the FAA last week about the $10 billion in CARES Act funding being “disproportionally awarded to several smaller, less trafficked airports.” He noted some airports received enough money to sustain their operations for decades, while others only received enough cash for a few months.

“The purpose of the CARES Act emergency relief is to support U.S. airports that are experiencing severe economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 public health emergency, not to bolster or double smaller airports’ budgets based on an arbitrary formula,” Cohen wrote, asking the FAA to immediately suspend payments “until Congress can address this severe funding flaw.”

The FAA reportedly told KMOV4-TV in St. Louis that it would not be revising the amounts of funding to smaller airports. However, despite that comment and a website that still shows $18 million awarded to YRA, Hooper said Cody airport officials were notified that their share has been reduced by $6.2 million, to $11,786,244.

Engineer Scott Bell of Morrison-Maierle said the cut was due to “some of the things that have been happening through the alphabet groups of the airport world that we all live in.”

And while the FAA’s regional leaders say they’ll help the Cody airport get the full funding restored, it will likely take approval from headquarters in Washington, D.C., Bell said. He warned the board that, “You’re running the risk of losing the money completely if you drag [on] too long.”

Gathering public input

However, airport board members wanted to make sure they first heard from the public. A meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. today (Tuesday) at Collier Group Hangar No. 102, just east of Choice Aviation.

Chairman Bucky Hall initially planned to prohibit public comments at last week’s teleconference meeting. When Cody developer Harold Musser sought to chime in on the CARES Act funding, Hall interjected “that is not going to happen, Harold, not at this meeting.” Hall said it would be too cumbersome to take comments on the crowded phone line and that comments would be taken at a later, in-person meeting.

However, Musser argued that, “If you’re going to be making decisions today, I think you should be taking input today.” Cody City Councilman Glenn Nielson agreed and Hall relented.

Joel Simmons of Choice Aviation later added that “there might be 20 other things [to consider] that aren’t on this list.”

Park County Commissioner Jake Fulkerson told the YRA board that “there’s a lot of interest” in the CARES Act funding.

Chuck Walker of the local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) asked the airport to rescind some new airport fee hikes set to soon go into effect. “That [CARES] Act is supposed to mitigate somewhat the financial stress that’s placed on not only companies and employees, but also individuals,” Walker said.

Hall said he thought the board would likely do so at its regular May 13 meeting.

Rasmussen called for nixing the fee hikes immediately; she also said she hopes to use part of the federal aid on projects that will generate revenue for the airport and hopefully make it self-sustaining “for eternity.”