Says User Fee Battle Is Drawing Near
Editor's Note: On Tuesday, we put out the call
for several aero-organizations to weigh in on President Bush's
fiscal year 2007 budget -- specifically, in how it relates to the
FAA and aviation interests as a whole. Today, we present the
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's response, unedited (except
for highlighted portions of interest, in bold
type) below.
Stay tuned to ANN as we present more views on what the 2007
budget holds for the world of aviation.
General aviation airports are in for a rough time next year if
the Bush administration gets its way.
"The White House is proposing to cut nearly $1 billion
from the Airport Improvement Program in 2007 compared to the amount
established by Congress, and almost all of that would come
from monies earmarked for GA airports," said AOPA President Phil
Boyer. "Congress must not allow this to happen."
Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta released the
Department of Transportation's budget earlier this week,
which includes $13.7 billion for the FAA.
DOT claims that the
reduced amount for airports is "still robust by historical
standards" and that all major runway projects would be
completed.
"There's more to the system than runways at air carrier
airports," said Boyer. "And Congress, when it authorized spending
up to $3.7 billion for airports, decided what is 'robust.'
This proposal isn't anywhere close to
'robust.'"
Under the somewhat arcane funding formulas, when AIP
funding drops below $3.2 billion (the administration is proposing
$2.75 billion for next year), all "entitlements" for GA airports
are eliminated. That means almost all of the money would
go to big airports.
The money the administration proposes to "save" by cutting
airport funding would be used to help pay for air traffic control
operations. But the typical general aviation pilot is only a
marginal consumer of ATC services; some 90 percent of GA
flights are flown in VFR conditions.
Once again, the administration is claiming poverty when it comes
to the FAA because the funding system is allegedly broken.
"There is general agreement that our growing aviation system
needs a more stable and predictable revenue stream that creates a
more direct relationship between revenues collected and services
provided," Mineta said.
"As the representative of more than 407,000 pilots, we
definitely do not concur with that statement," said Boyer (below,
right). "There's no 'general agreement' from our side
— especially for any proposal that includes user
fees."
Details of this new "cost based" financing plan and what it will
mean for GA are expected to be released sometime this spring.
AOPA contends that
between the predicted growth of the aviation trust fund and the
historical general fund contributions to FAA's budget, there are
sufficient revenues to improve airports and aviation infrastructure
and fund a well-managed, efficient FAA.
"If there is any good news for GA in this budget, it is proposed
funding for new technologies that will support the Next Generation
Air Transportation System (NGATS)," said Boyer.
The budget proposal provides $122.4 million for
continued improvements and expansion to the Wide Area Augmentation
System (WAAS), which provides inexpensive ILS-like
instrument approaches into hundreds of GA airports that don't
currently have ILSs.
Another $80 million would be earmarked for ADS-B
implementation. ADS-B will provide in-cockpit weather and
traffic information for GA pilots and extend air traffic control's
ability to see aircraft in areas that are now blind to radar.
"AOPA has been a strong proponent of both WAAS and ADS-B because
of the benefits they bring to general aviation," said Boyer. "We
believe they should be adequately funded.
"But we must never forget that no matter how good the
technology, the system falls apart without airports. That's where
we need to put our money, and AOPA will work with Congress to
restore those airport funds."