Alexandria, VA, October 20, 2009 - National Air Transportation Association (NATA) President James K. Coyne today praised members of the U.S. House of Representatives for addressing the Obama Administration's intention to implement a new funding mechanism to supplement the Airport and Airways Trust Fund in the Fiscal Year 2011 budget.
"I commend House Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Costello (D-IL) and Ranking Member Tom Petri (R-WI) as well as the 116 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives that co-signed the letter opposing any type of user fee for the general aviation community," Coyne said.
"User fees are not needed to raise revenue for the trust fund, and that the current system of aviation excise taxes have proven to be a stable and efficient source of funding for our aviation system," the letter states.
"NATA continues to be steadfastly opposed to any type of user fee proposal but has and will continue to support a reasonable increase in the fuel tax to help support the Airport and Airways Trust Fund," Coyne said.
"Imposing a new user fee on general aviation will surely result in a significant reduction in the number of non-scheduled flight operations, as well as recreational flying of personal aircraft," Coyne concluded. "The current funding stream works, so let's not try to fix something that simply is not broken."
