Does anyone know where to find the budget/actual numbers on the cost that we are talking about?
Starting with AOPA's site... no numbers yet broken down. But, they have a
special page where they are addressing the issue and will continue as they fight it.
Avweb has their little piece on it.
And finally, the White
House Budget Proposal... see Page 7. My head cold is getting to me too much to interpret this stuff right now but here are some highlights.
Keep in mind, while the source of funding will shift from its current source of largely fuel taxes, I don't believe any taxation will disappear. It states:
...fuel tax rates will be calibrated based on the costs that these users impose on the system.
We know well taxes almost never go down. So, the word "calibrated" leaves a lot of question. I equate this to eBay's notices of "adjusting fees" while the adjustment, seemingly never goes down.
It states tax receipts and discretionary spending will decrease. If you've read my posts in the spin zone, you know my stance on such remarks and ideologies of any politician.
It further states:
The reform of FAA’s financing structure is necessary because under the existing aviation tax structure, there is no relationship between the taxes paid by users and the air traffic control services rendered by the FAA.
Let's see... GA uses less fuel but uses even less of the services of the FAA. While, the airline industry uses a substantial amount of fuel and substantially higher use of FAA resources.
They continue:
For example, when a full plane flies from New York to Boston it imposes the same workload on the FAA as when a less crowded plane of the same size travels the same route. However, since the current tax structure is primarily based on the price of a ticket, the full plane pays much more in taxes than the less crowded plane. User fees allow commercial aviation users to pay directly for the services that FAA provides for managing the use of the national airspace.
They couldn't have picked a worse example given virtually nothing will fly in that region without requiring services.
Everything I read from this has nothing but higher costs written all over it. I don't see a proportionate fee structure. I see the beginning of squeezing out an entire sector of the aviation community. Fuel taxes will remain the same. Fees will come into place on top of them. So, we'll effectively be paying twice. Should by some miracle the fuel taxes do become "calibrated" lower, you can bet states will pick up the slack and increase their tax under the guise, "there's no net increase." Such has happened before.
