On Feb 20, 8:42 pm, "Blueskies" wrote:
"Dylan Smith" wrote in ...

: On 2007-02-20, Orval Fairbairn wrote:
: I'm not sure what is being referenced as "rubbish."
:
: The AOPA article being exaggerated. My own situation is proof that the
: AOPA article is a gross exaggeration. However, AOPA is quite right to
: want to lobby *against* user fees. AOPA rails against the popular press
: for writing distortions and half truths - they need to apply that
: standard to themselves too!
:
: Other than that, AOPA is quite right to lobby against insane user fees.
:
: --
: Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
: Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute:http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

How does your situation provide proof that the AOPA article is a gross exaggeration?

A more honest argument would be that eliminating the massive tax
subsidies that go to the thousands of GA airports (for capital as well
as operating purposes), would increase the costs to GA. The FACT is
that GA AV gas taxes, at 19.3 cents per gallon, contribute roughly 5%
to the Aviation Trust Fund. Boyer cannot change this, and therefore
never refers to this critical fact. You think that only 5% or so of
the entire FAA budget gets allocated to GA? Well, the Bureau of
Transportation Statistics thinks otherwise, as do influential think
tanks such as the Reason Foundation.
The fact is that capital and operating grants to the thousands of GA
airports are paid mostly by passengers on commercial airliners and by
the general taxpaying public (due to the General Fund contribution
that the Destroyer is trying so desperately to keep).

As Boyer has said (absurdly), commercial ticket taxes don't hurt the
commercial carriers because they pass it on to the passengers. OK, if
this is true, maybe rather than user fees the FBOs should be charged a
separate tax to cover the full cost of operating and equipping the
airport at which they are based. It won't hurt them: they can simply
pass it on to the users, just like the commercial carriers do.

Oh, yeah, commercial carriers (which transport millions of people
every year) are "special interests" according to the AOPA, which is
apparently not a special interest, but instead is concerned with good
public policy.