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Increasing user fees to guarantee funding for improving the nation's aviation system sharply split House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee members at a hearing Wednesday.

Temporary reductions in passengers after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the SARS epidemic, coupled with the increase of low-cost carriers that are now controlling ticket prices, threaten to bankrupt the federal Aviation Trust Fund in the next couple of years. Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., said the United States should consider converting to a user fee system based on recommendations by a commission headed by Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta in 1997 and the use of fees by other countries.

Mica said the subcommittee needs to examine "who is paying what and how that matches with the FAA's cost of providing services to each user group."

But several subcommittee members opposed any increase in fees. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., said user fees, particularly for general non-commercial aviation, are "completely the wrong direction to go."

Aviation Subcommittee ranking member Jerry Costello, D-Ill., said a user fee-based system "raises more questions than answers." Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Marion Blakey said the agency does not "want to rush to judgment on any user fees or excise taxes."

Aviation excise taxes that are deposited into the federal Aviation Trust Fund, including taxes on domestic tickets and commercial fuel, expire in 2007. Fewer general revenue dollars are available to cushion that loss as the administration seeks to reduce the budget deficit while increasing spending on homeland security and other defense-related spending.

Blakey said ticket taxes are "absolutely unrelated to the cost of the service." And she noted that while smaller planes carrying fewer passengers are taking a larger share of aviation traffic, "it costs us the same amount to move that aircraft" as it does larger planes.

Mica also suggested bonds be considered because some see them "as an attractive way to modernize the air traffic control system without requiring the users to pay for that investment upfront." But Costello questioned how bonds would affect the federal discretionary budget.

Mica and Costello both criticized the FAA for issuing "overly optimistic" revenue estimates. Blakey contended that the FAA has shown "remarkable progress" in reducing costs, but Transportation Department Inspector General Kenneth Mead said the FAA needs to take additional steps to control costs while continuing to make progress on managing labor costs.

GAO has found that the uncommitted balance in the trust fund has decreased from $7.3 billion in 2001 to $4.8 billion in 2002 and has continued to decrease by about $1 billion every year since. It is possible that the trust fund would go bankrupt in the next two years, though the FAA would continue to fund air traffic control services while suspending some projects funded by the Airport Improvement Program and technological improvements for facilities and equipment.

COMMENTS

• It is true that a small GA trainer would require as much work (if not more) than an airliner passing through the same area. Also true that the system is running low on money and the controllers are overburdened. Fees is one way to finance a change but how would that effect GA flying and training ? What about giving the flight schools and recreational GA fliers an annual allowance, a limited number of hours they could use the system for free or at large discount ? Should not the fees be structured so that someone flying on a VFR airway in the middle of nowhere and landing in a small uncontrolled airport would pay a much smaller fee (if at all) than someone flying in a busy terminal area (Class B,C) ? This would make most of recreational GA flying still possible. Can we allocate some training areas for schools where their activity would not interfere with regular traffic, GA or commercial, and will not suffer prohibitive fees ? n contrast with Europe we have an abundance of space and good VFR weather. Leo Posted May 22, 2007 11:06 AM
• If you are for General aviation, all you have to do is look at any country that has imposed user fees and see how it has destroyed General aviation as we know it. We are the only country were anybody can learn to fly. If the congress goes with user fees this will no longer be true, only the rich will be flying. Try selling the public on paying tolls on all roads and services related to cars so the big trucks can make more money. The ATC system was built to support the airlines. Most GA uses the system to enhance safty. User fees will stop a lot of people from flying. I guess if nobody can afford to fly that will enhance aviation safty. David Childress Posted May 6, 2007 9:37 PM