It has been reported that Representative Jerry Costello, (D-Ill.) is once again championing the issue for business aviation on use fees to be charged. Representative Costello serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and he has issued a statement on Friday urging President Obama not to include general aviation user fees in the upcoming budget. He put forth in the statement:
“We want to reiterate that a user-fee proposal would be a step backward,” he wrote. “This is an issue that we have had bipartisan agreement on in recent years and there is no reason to reconsider it. I will not support a budget or an FAA reauthorization bill that includes user fees.”
Representative Costello is rallying support across congress to support his measures. Another that has noticed and is also rallying behind Representative Costello is National Business Aviation Association president Ed Bolen. President Bolen is applauding Costello’s efforts and joins in his position on usage fees in business aviation. Currently the business aviation industry supports funding of the FAA through the use of a fuel tax and that seems to be the tried and tested way of funding and not any as yet untested use fees. It appears that it would be a tough road to have usage fees change the way we fund the industry association through this source.