Benton port approves 2008 budget

Benton port approves 2008 budget Officials from the Port of Benton in Washington state passed a $10.8 million budget Monday, including capital improvement allocations for a waterfront park and improvements to facilities at Prosser Airport.
   The port, which does not rely on tax revenue to cover its operations, expects to earn about $2.6 million in 2008 lease monies from its various properties. Another $3.7 million in revenue will come from grants, interest income and taxes collected by the port.
   A little over a quarter of the port's revenues, about $1.7 million, will be used to pay the port's own taxes.
   The port's operations and maintenance budget is projected to increase 17 percent over 2007 to $1.5 million. Nearly $325,000 of the operations and maintenance budget will go to improvements and upkeep on Crow Butte Park, a popular waterfront park near Paterson that the port manages.
   The port's capital improvement budget is projected to be about $4.8 million, including rebuilding a hangar at Prosser airport and a $500,000 expansion of the Fruit Smart building at the airport. The port's budget also sets aside about $230,000 to build an amphitheater at the Prosser Wine & Food Park, a project they have been working on for two years.
   Also on the books for next year include a $250,000 project to build a new freight distribution facility in Richland for agriculture exports. The port has already received a $1 million state grant for the project, with the balance coming from the port coffers. A 720,000-square-foot refrigerated building is also planned, set for construction next year on a 6.8 acre site off Highway 240.
   The 2008 budget calls for spending just over $555,000 on the port's Technology and Business campus, various road and infrastructure improvements, and celebrations of the port's 50th anniversary.