President Told It's A Bad Idea By Members On Both Sides Of The Aisle

The NBAA welcomed a bipartisan letter signed by 116 members of the U.S. House of Representatives urging President Obama to keep user fees out of the administration's fiscal year 2012 budget.

Rep. Jerry Costello (D-12-IL), who serves as Ranking Member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Aviation Subcommittee, and who issued an earlier statement urging the administration to avoid user fees in the budget plan, joined with Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Tom Petri (R-6-WI) in the new call to the White House to exclude user fees from its next fiscal year budget proposal.

The bipartisan letter states that aviation user fees "would have a detrimental impact on general aviation and the flying public. We support the current system of aviation excise taxes, which has proven to be a stable and efficient source of funding."

NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen applauded the action of Petri, Costello and their fellow co-signers to the letter. "We thank the Congressional leaders who took this action early in the year to reinforce a clear message of opposition to user fees, and welcome their unwavering support on this issue of critical importance to the entire general aviation community," he said in a statement Friday.

NBAA and the rest of the general aviation community have long been unified in advocating for the industry to help fund the Federal Aviation Administration and aviation system modernization through proven, efficient fuel taxes instead of untried and burdensome user fees. Bolen noted that user fees would require a large bureaucracy to manage, and would impose a burden on the many small and mid-size businesses that rely on an airplane to succeed.

He added that NBAA would continue to support aviation system modernization without user fees for general aviation, and that continued grassroots mobilization by the Association's Members would be key to ensuring that the industry's position on the issue is well understood by Washington policymakers.

Costello and Petri organized a similar letter initiative in 2009, which was also met with strong, bipartisan support.

FMI: www.nbaa.org/advocacy/20110121-house-aviation-subscommittee.php