Some "legislator" from the People's Republic of MA introduced Bill S.2305 to levy a $1K landing fee on non-cargo, non-public aircraft landing at any municipal our county owned airport in MA. Can't have those personal aircraft people flying to the Cape and Islands.
https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192...IvU_6o7ZydFmE1Z2r7HKhHkS3sJmtU74I9-gfUAdDU6D4
The legislator in question represents the Cape and Islands, don't forget that.
How to fight against this bill? Always follow the money.
Every state has a periodic report that details financial impact of aviation in the state. This includes not only direct income/costs but associated jobs, business revenue, off-airport spending (visitors who fly in), agriculture & taxes.
Don't know about Mass, but in Colorado, aviation (as per the CDOT 2020 report for 2018), the 70 (really 74 but 4 didn't report) airports in Colorado support 346,000 jobs (9% of the state in general) with a payroll of over $16 Billion and business revenue of over $48 Billion. GA spent more than $20 billion supporting nearly 200,000 jobs. If we assume the same limitations as the proposed Mass bill, none of this come from cargo or commercial, schedule aviation.
Check out the similar report from Mass DOT at
https://www.mass.gov/economic-impact-study
What's the prominent image on the cover? Bunch of spam cans. This report is only 12 pages compared to the 115 for the Colorado report. But then, Mass is tiny compared to Colorado. Military $$$ impact is in the Mass report but not in Colorado.
If the major GA airports (and the Big 2 - DEN and COS really do have a GA component but let's not include them the discussion) started a $1000/landing fee (or a substantial fee) I can almost guarantee there will be
1) zero flight training - there's no exemption for flight training in the Mass bill that I can find
2) minimal traffic to Aspen, Vail and Telluride for ski season - they'll go to Utah
3) zero medical transport - no exemption in the bill
4) zero Angel Flight - no exemption in the bill
5) zero Young Eagles, and other aviation educational groups
6) at least half the existing GA-specific airports will close up due to lack of business (no fuel, no maintenance, no visitors)
7) Hm...the USAF Academy will have a problem since it uses 5 or 6 GA airports for training in addition to the Academy field - no exemption in the bill
This bill looks an awful like the recent FAA ruling on the Warbirds - trying to deal with a specific NIMBY problem but impacting everything else.
Where is his staff? They're the ones who are supposed to be doing all the research and determining the implications of any proposed legislation.