User Fees Are Back

The White House budget released Feb. 13 would impose a $100-per-flight fee on turbine and jet powered aircraft for air traffic services, the Obama administration announced in releasing its proposed budget.

Specifically, page 30 of the budget states: " ... the Administration proposes to create a $100 per flight fee, payable to the Federal Aviation Administration, by aviation operators who fly in controlled airspace."

The new fee-per-flight proposal would exempt all piston aircraft, military aircraft, public aircraft, air ambulances, aircraft operating outside of controlled airspace, and Canada-to-Canada flights.

It only took a couple of hours for AOPA, EAA and NBAA to issue press releases denouncing the proposal and promising a coordinated battle to oppose it.

Although the $100 fee came as no surprise to the aviation groups, which watched it appear in deficit-reduction negotiations in late 2011 and again in a recent statement from the White House, it was somewhat of a shock to see it in print.

Between the proposal, aimed at turbine aircraft, and a plan to eliminate depreciation rules that serve as an incentive to purchase business aircraft, business aviation fared poorly in the proposed budget.

"Regrettably, the Obama administration has chosen to impose fees on the use of private aircraft, which the majority of Congress on a bipartisan basis has consistently rejected," said AOPA President Craig Fuller.

"Pay at the pump has worked since the dawn of powered flight and it still works.

"The last thing we need right now is to create an expensive new bureaucracy to fix what isn't broken."

IF IT AIN'T BROKE ...

"Ideally, the president would work with general aviation to acknowledge not only this contribution, but also the industry's value in generating jobs, helping companies compete and succeed, and providing a lifeline to communities across the country," NBAA President Ed Bolen said.

"Instead, he's repeatedly proposed anti-general aviation initiatives like this one."

EAA said it was already in touch with GA Caucus leadership in both houses of Congress encouraging opposition to the user fee proposal.

Congress has repeatedly dismissed GA user fees in a bipartisan manner and reiterated its stance recently last month with the passage of the FAA Reauthorization Bill now awaiting the president's signature.

"The administration continues to paint this added tax on general aviation as an 'equal sharing' of the expense burden but, simply put, it is not that at all," said Doug Macnair, EAA vice president of government relations.

"It is an additional tax onus on GA aircraft owners and pilots, who already pay their fair share of the small percentage of air traffic services they use through fuel taxes.

"Even pilots who never use ATC services pay for the system through the use of aviation gasoline and jet fuel."

In a response to a petition, signed by close to 9,000 people, that urged the president to take user fees off the table, the Office of Management and Budget presaged the budget release by reaffirming the White House's commitment to pursuing the fee.

"While claiming to desire economic growth and more jobs, the Obama administration singles out one of the most respected industries and their highly skilled workers for punitive fees," noted AOPA President Craig Fuller.

"For inexplicable reasons, the administration singles out the business use of private aircraft as the one asset for which operating fees should be required.
"This is an odd approach for policy makers who elect to fly in Boeing 747s on business and personal travel."

Bolen said NBAA Members can make their voices heard with their representatives in Congress through www.nbaa.org/advocacy/contact/?ISSUE=nbaa0048, NBAA's online Contact Congress resource, which has a letter that can be sent to lawmakers opposing user fees.

"NBAA will continue to advocate for the industry's priorities as Congress considers the president's latest budget proposal, and our efforts will be most effective if the people in business aviation echo our message with their elected representatives," Bolen said.

"I encourage everyone in general aviation to contact their elected officials today."