Business View Magazine
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and our elevators an opportunity – a low-cost means,
if you will – to reach the spring-wheat market of New
Orleans.”
While the Port is a public entity, overseen by a nine-
member board, it is run like a business. “We are under
a mandate, and have been since the day we opened,
to operate in a financially solvent manner,” says Por-
tiss. “We are not tax-supported. We receive no state
appropriations; we receive no local tax money. In order
to spend a buck, we have to earn a buck.” According to
David Yarbrough, the Port’s Deputy Director, approxi-
mately 70 percent of those bucks come from the rents
that the Port’s tenants pay to operate their businesses
on the site. “Besides our lease income, we have opera-
tional income that comes from operating our two fleet-
switching towboats, and our rail infrastructure, includ-
ing three switch locomotives,” he adds. “And then, we
get just a little bit from tollage and wharfage on every
