Fellow LML Aviators,
At an Aviation Conference
dinner in Michigan
last night, Jack Pelton (Chairman of the Board of Cessna), gave an informative
presentation on Cessna's lineup of new aircraft (the Mustang, the Light Sport,
their new model to compete with Cirrus, etal). However, the most
compelling part of his presentation related to the current state of things in Washington related to
FAA User Fees for General Aviation. Unfortunately, all is not well.
As you may be aware based on
news and/or AOPA posts, this issue is coming to a head. Specifically, the
FAA/DOT is scheduled to send it's recommendation for the upcoming Fed budget to
the congress next week. That budget and it's funding components will be
debated this summer for a vote in Sept.
Until last Nov, the prior
DOT chief Norman Mineta was generally opposed to user/usage based fees for
GA. However, the new DOT chief Mary Peters and FAA chief Marion
Blakely both appear more favorable towards the airlines' lobbing for an added
GA User Fees approach. More will be known when their actual budget
recommendation is sent to congress next week, but it currently appears it will
include a recommendation for GA User Fees and by then the wheels will already
be set in motion.
I'd like to urge each of you
to think about your personal position on this issue and contact your
congressman to help ensure they understand your views. First
impressions count, and media coverage will probably peak, so timing is
important. If you want more background/information on the issue goto: http://www.aopa.org/faafundingdebate/
Below are the links to determine
you congressmen’s email/sites. Also below is a copy of the text
from my personal emails to each. Feel free to copy/edit it if you wish.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Sorry for any perceived
personal/political intrusion – but it seems we have a common interest in
this.
Rick
Dear Senator Levin, Senator
Stabenow, Representative McCotter
I am a pilot located in
Novi, MI, and am sending this letter to request your support for myself and
others in the state of Michigan that utilize general aviation aircraft for
business and pleasure and that earn a living through aviation and related
technologies - by opposing any proposal that would impose new, onerous, and
inefficient user fees on the General Aviation industry.
The FAA national
airspace/airway system is largely designed, sized, and operated to serve the
peak traffic demands of the large scheduled airlines flying between hub and
spoke airports at selected cities and to support our air defense system.
General Aviation aircraft (which includes flight training,
private/recreational, business, and police/fire/medical aircraft) primarily
operate "between the cracks" in that national system. As an
example, GA aircraft were restricted from operations at Regan National following
911. However, FAA staffing and spending needs there remained unchanged.
The general aviation
community currently contributes to the FAA Airport/Airways Trust Fund through a
fuel tax. The general aviation fuel taxes are directly and efficiently remitted
to the federal government, eliminating the need for a complex mechanism to
collect the taxes from hundreds of thousands of individual pilots and aircraft
owners/operators and without the administrative costs required to support a
large and expensive bureaucracy of collectors, administrators, auditors and
accountants. Thus, fuel taxes are the best way for the general aviation
community to pay for its shared use of the national airspace/airways system.
However, there are efforts
afoot by the FAA and large airlines to propagate a change to the FAA funding
mechanisms by creating an additional user/usage based fee/taxation approach for
General Aviation.
The experience our industry
has had with similar user/usage fee bureaucracies in other countries (such as
in Europe, Canada,
etc) demonstrates that there are serious drawbacks to those systems. User
fees are a disincentive for efficiency and safety at all levels.
In the US, our
historic safety, efficiency, and freedom based approach to aviation has helped
make us the global leader across nearly all aspects of aviation and flight
training. Furthermore, other industries and the general public have
benefited from the many advancements derived from aviation related research and
development.
Others in the world would
love to take that leadership position and those industries from us.
By allowing the creation of
an inefficient and ineffective "user/usage based" tax bureaucracy for
general aviation we are undermining and inhibiting our ability to compete - not
only in aviation related industries, but also for all businesses and industries
that rely on aviation to efficiently operate within our geographically broad
country (sea to shinning sea).
Spin the clock forward just
a few years after an added GA user fee approach is adopted: needless bureaucratic and administrative
costs will rise, usage of air traffic safety services will drop, costs and
suffering associated with accidents will increase, costs of business travel and
operations will increase, businesses that support general aviation and related
activities will struggle, dissolve, and fail, competition from abroad will
increase, followed by calls for government incentives and protectionism, etc -
a death spiral.
We have already lost
leadership in several significant industries to foreign interests/leadership,
such as textiles, steel, consumer electronics, autos, etc. What's next,
aviation and high tech? Then, what's left?
The general aviation
community is committed to working with government and industry to develop our
future air transportation system. But user fee based taxation for general
aviation is a terrible idea which undermines safety, efficiency, and our
ability to compete globally. I urge you to preserve the general aviation
fuel tax as the sole mechanism for collecting Aviation Trust Fund revenue from
the general aviation community and to help protect us and our economic
livelihood all from any shortsighted, self-serving, special interest efforts to
create unnecessary and inefficient general aviation user fees.
Thank you for your
consideration of this matter, and for your service to our state.
Sincerely,
Mr. Rick Titsworth
313-506-5604