GRASSROOTS PETITION LAUNCHED TO KILL USER FEE THREAT

The following information was released by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association:

By AOPA ePublishing staff

Thanks to an aviation enthusiast from Iowa, pilots can now send a direct message to the White House: No user fees.

An AOPA member alerted AOPA President Craig Fuller Sept. 25 that a petition had been created to take aviation user fees off the table. AOPA is joining the petition and encourages all members to do the same.

Pilots have seen what happens when a government institutes user fees. Safety is compromised, costs go up, and our entire national transportation system suffers. No one wants to see that happen, Fuller said. AOPA members are standing up for what they believe in, and we are standing with them.

The White House offers an online petition system called We the People, which provides a new way to petition the Obama Administration to take action on a range of important issues facing our country, the website states.

The petition launched just days after the Obama administration released the presidents plan to reduce the deficit and grow the economy. The plan included a proposed $100 fee for users of air traffic services.

According to draft wording of the user fee plan, the Obama administration proposes to establish a new mandatory surcharge for air traffic services. This proposal would create a $100 per flight fee, payable to the FAA, by aviation operators who fly in controlled airspace. Military aircraft, public aircraft, recreational piston aircraft, air ambulances, aircraft operating outside of controlled airspace, and Canada-to-Canada flights would be exempted. The revenues generated by the surcharge would be deposited into the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. This fee would generate an estimated $11 billion over 10 years. Assuming the enactment of the fee, total charges collected from aviation users would finance roughly three fourths of airport investments and air traffic control system costs.

The petition states, The aviation community understands the need to raise revenue at a time when we all need to sacrifice, however, this should be done by increasing tax rates on aviation fuel, rather than on a per-flight basis. By using an existing system of revenue generation, the administration can put more of the revenue collected towards the operation of the air traffic control system, thus improving safety for the system overall.

Furthermore, a tax on fuel more accurately reflects the actual ATC services used over a fixed flat fee, as a flight from NYC to LA will require more controller time than a flight from NYC to Boston.

AOPA has long advocated that general aviation pay at the pump through aviation fuel taxes and not through a user-fee system.

If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure its sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response, the official White House website states. The threshold currently stands at a petition receiving 5,000 signatures within 30 days. The take aviation user fees off the table petition was created on Sept. 23. Those who wish to sign the petition must first sign up for a free account, which can be done from the petition page.