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Conspicuously absent in the proposal for 2011 are the “direct user charges” alluded to in last year's budget. The administration had proposed replacing some excise taxes with the fees starting in 2011, but the proposal faced opposition from AOPA, other industry groups, and members of Congress.
“We have waged a twelve-month campaign since the moment we learned of a planned $9.6 billion fee,” said AOPA President Craig Fuller. “AOPA members stood strong against the proposal, and general aviation organizations worked together to prevent the realization of a policy that could have crippled GA.”
Shortly after the release of the budget, the Department of Transportation confirmed in a conference call with industry stakeholders that no user fees were on the agenda; Fuller thanked Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for their absence.
The budget sustains the funding structure that has long served the FAA: a time-tested system of aviation fuel taxes, ticket taxes, and a general fund contribution. The House has supported this funding structure in recent years, and more than 100 members of the House told the President in October that a user fee proposal would be a “non-starter.”
The idea of raising money from aviation user fees has persistently re-emerged in White House budgets from year to year, and Fuller said that the association will stay vigilant in working to keep them off the table in the future; even bad ideas have a way of resurfacing. For now, he said, the absence of user fees in the budget bodes well for GA.
“The decision not to include user fees in the 2011 budget is encouraging, and it allows all of us in the aviation community to focus on important priorities like air traffic control modernization, keeping airports open, and growing the pilot population,” he said.
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