Taking the right road

By Craig Fuller
AOPA President

Recent events have set us on a new path - one I am pleased to say is of our choosing.

The events I refer to focus around new budget plans for 2011. A year ago, the Obama Administration had said it planned to introduce some $9.6 billion in “direct user charges” in its 2011 budget.

AOPA responded immediately. We joined forces with other aviation organizations and our friends in Congress to deliver a clear and consistent message - user fees are not the best way to fund the aviation system. The formation of the General Aviation Caucuses in both the House and Senate helped reinforce the growing sentiment that GA is important and valued.

And a letter signed by 118 members of the House calling user fees a “non-starter” really brought the message home. Thankfully, because we could speak with one voice, our message was heard loud and clear.

And when President Obama released his 2011 budget proposal, it did not include user fees for 2011 or 2012. That’s $9.6 billion in charges that simply didn’t materialize.

Of course, it’s not that easy to make user fees disappear. It took a lot of hard work from many interested parties. And, as always, there’s more to do.

The good news is that with user fees off the table for now, we can choose the items on our agenda instead of being forced to react to a potential crisis. When we were working on the user fee issue, we told government officials that we, and they, could choose between two paths.

The first path led to a protracted battle over fees. The second allowed us to work together to take positive actions that would move aviation forward. Thankfully, they chose the second path.

We are grateful for that decision, but it also means that we need to live up to our promise to work with leaders in government, as well as our fellow aviation associations, to create a better future for GA. We can do that by turning our attention to issues like protecting airports, implementing NextGen, growing the pilot population, improving our safety record, and enhancing our image.

And we can do it by continuing to build on the relationships and partnerships we developed to help us deliver our message opposing user fees.

We have great momentum right now, and an obligation to take full advantage of the gains we’ve made to keep GA moving down a positive path. I hope you’ll get engaged and be part of shaping GA’s future.

To find out more about how you can help keep GA moving forward, visit www.aopa.org/engage.