NBAA, AOPA Point To Call For "Direct User Charges" By 2011
On Thursday, President Barack Obama submitted the first proposed
budget under his administration, and it contained some rotten news
for general aviation: language calling for user fees to begin in
2011.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released
the proposal February 26... and while there is not much detail, the
document makes it clear that the administration wants to replace
some of the aviation excise taxes with "direct user charges."
"It is often said the devil is in the details, but even with
only a few details, there is much about which we are concerned,"
said Craig L. Fuller, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots
Association. "We have been working constructively with the Obama
administration and Congress about moving forward with air traffic
control modernization and airport development. However, the warning
light went on with the budget briefing documents and the plan for
imposing billions in user fees on the aviation community."
Among those few details is language that "proposes repealing
some aviation excise taxes and replacing these taxes with direct
user charges," according to AOPA. Those "user charges" -- user fees
by a somewhat different name -- would total some $7 billion in
2011, or about half of the FAA's total budget.
The news also came as an unwelcome surprise to Ed Bolen,
president of the National Business Aviation Association.
"Although we commend the Obama Administration for its commitment
to modernizing the nation's aviation system and expanding capacity,
we are very troubled by the budget outline issued by the White
House today, because its appears to leave the door open to
consideration of user fees for funding the Federal Aviation
Administration," he said. "We continue to believe that operational
user fees have no place in a funding plan for the FAA, and we will
remain unified with the rest of the general aviation community in
opposing them in favor of building on the proven, efficient fuel
tax for general aviation to help support modernization."
AOPA's Fuller added "We don’t know what kind of user
charges the Obama administration would propose to implement, but
the previous administration wanted to raise about $7 billion
through charges to use the air traffic control system."