Res Communis

GA groups continue fight against user fees

by Sara M. Langston with the blog faculty

Source: AOPA

The prospect of general aviation user fees has reared its head again, this time in debt-reduction negotiations. GA groups are urging members of the House and Senate to reject this “resoundingly discredited approach to raising revenues.” [more]

Source: AVweb

All the major aviation groups have signed a letter (PDF) to House Speaker John Boehner opposing the user fee idea as inefficient and potentially damaging to GA. The idea was floated at meetings concerning the debt ceiling debate and the alphabets say the concept has been thoroughly debated in the past and rejected and it hasn’t gotten any better with age. “User fees have absolutely devastated general aviation in other parts of the world, and in the United States, they would only serve to create a new federal collection bureaucracy of billing agents, auditors and collection officials to harass small businesses and others,” the letter reads.