6 February 2007
President Bush’s proposed budget for the coming year has been released, and according to general aviation groups, it suggests that some bad news is coming.
The $2.9 trillion plan appears to be aimed at freeing up more money for the military; but that is at the cost of other services, aviation among them. US AOPA, EAA and other groups have been warning about, and speaking out against, potential measures like ATC user fees and fuel tax increases – and now, with the release of the budget proposal, these same groups seem to be resigned to the fact that those will become a reality.
The real test will come later this month when the ‘FAA reauthorization proposal’ is released, but the signs are that users – including GA – will be asked to fund the Authority.
“We have strong reason to believe it will increase GA fuel taxes by nearly fourfold,” said US AOPA President Phil Boyer. “As if a huge tax increase isn’t bad enough, the budget makes it clear that the FAA will charge user fees for GA operations in ‘the nation’s most congested airspace,’ which sounds like Class B airspace.”
The EAA has also spoken out. “DOT and FAA have attempted to distract from the user fee issue in their public statements by saying that revenue from general aviation would continue to be collected via a fuel tax, but they failed to acknowledge that the fuel tax would be increased dramatically and a whole series of user fees would be implemented for FAA services that today do not carry a charge,” said Doug Macnair, EAA Vice-President of Government Relations.
US light aviation groups have been expecting such a move for some time, and have been <a href=’newsfeed.php?artnum=322′ target=’_blank’>debating openly</a>, and issuing joint statements, for some time about the dangers and lack of foresight in such proposals.
Expect a massive pro-GA campaign in the US. We’ll be watching carefully.
