Here is a letter that a pilot-and-aviation-lawyer friend of mine here in Houston wrote to our congressman:
[name]
[address]
Re: My strong opposition to the deadly aviation tax increase proposed in the President’s budget
Dear [name];
I wish to express my strong opposition to the deadly aviation tax increase proposed in the President’s budget and ask you to oppose any legislation which implements this ill-considered measure.
Don’t fix what is not broken. For decades, air traffic control (“ATC”) services in the United States have been paid for by a combination of taxes on aviation fuels for all types of civilian aircraft, and by a ticket tax on airline tickets. While the airspace system is largely designed to facilitate the airlines’ operations at a few dozen massive “hub” airports (which have very little non-airline traffic), the current funding mechanism has efficiently ensured that all airspace users pay their fair share of the cost for these services. Currently, the larger the aircraft the more fuel it uses, and the longer the flight the more fuel it uses and therefore the more taxes it pays.
“User fees” mean taxation without representation. The newly proposed aviation taxes have been referred to as “User fees”. This is a carefully crafted misnomer, which reflects that the side that controls the language in politics controls the debate. "User fees" sounds free-market and egalitarian. It is actually a substantial tax increase that will fall largely on individuals and small businesses. This is not only a semantic distinction. By styling this massive regressive tax increase as “User Fees”, the tax increase proponents also intend to take control over this wholly new tax away from elected representatives and instead place it in the hands of the struggling, inefficient airline industry, which now apparently sees all other forms of civilian aviation as competition.
“User fees” are taxes that will kill people. Under the proposed tax plan, every time a pilot contacts or uses air traffic control (“ATC”) services there will be a direct charge. It should be patently obvious that some pilots will make the decision not to call ATC because they don't want to spend the money, or are afraid their employer will penalize them or fire them. This will not just be a private aviation problem; it will affect the airlines, too. With so many airlines in bankruptcy or in financial jeopardy, it is not hard to imagine the tremendous pressure on airline pilots not to be the one who incurred the greatest ATC charges for the month/quarter/year. Sooner or later, this tax increase will kill people. Not only is such a plan deadly, it is grossly inefficient. The new aviation taxes will require a massive new bureaucracy to collect the tax, and turn air traffic controllers into collection agents. The only way to avoid undermining air safety and creating a massive new bureaucracy to boot is to make sure the decision to use ATC or not is made on the ground, like it is now through the existing, efficient and successful aviation fuel tax.
“User fees” will tax an important American industry out of existence. This type of aviation tax scheme has proved woefully inefficient in Australia and Canada and has severely crippled those countries’ non-airline civilian aviation industries. Private aviation provides a vital transportation link to over 5,000 communities in the US that do not have airline service. Furthermore, instead of being ultra-expensive play toys of the very rich, most private aircraft provide efficient and economical transportation for individuals and small businesses. In turn, there are thousands of small businesses throughout the country that support our nation’s private aviation fleet. Allowing the airlines to tax private aviation out of existence would be a travesty and would cost tens of thousands of jobs.
The National Airspace System benefits all Americans. Private aviation and the airlines are not the only ones who benefit from ATC. Anyone who takes comfort knowing that medivac helicopters are available in case of emergency, fire fighting aircraft are available to respond to fires, police helicopters and airplanes patrol their communities and FBI, DHS, Customs and Border Patrol aircraft patrol the country, are deriving a valuable benefit from ATC, even if they never personally fly anywhere. Additionally, ATC provides a substantial benefit to the military. I am an active pilot and cannot think of a flight over 2 hours in length where ATC I was talking to was not also assisting military aircraft. Then there are those that benefit from material carried on planes of all sizes, including mail, Federal Express and UPS packages, lab results, checks, seafood and a whole host of conveniences that are part of the fabric of our culture, and would not be possible without aviation.
Ultimately, this debate is about individual liberty. The freedom to fly through the sky to a destination of your choosing, or to no place in particular is a uniquely American liberty. If the airline industry is successful in taxing other forms of aviation out of existence, what will be next? Motorcycles? Firearms? Personal watercraft? SUVs? Where would we be today if, in the early 1960s, the passenger rail lines had succeeded in lobbying Congress to make all interstates into tollways in order to protect their monopoly on interstate transportation?
I would be pleased to provide you with additional information about this issue, and the importance of private aviation to me, my small business and my clients. Thank you for your attention to this vitally important issue.
Sincerely,
George Andrew (“Drew”) Coats
