Senators still demand user fees

On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:56:15 -0400, Peter Clark
wrote in
:

http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsite...712senate.html


Bloody hypocrites:

"Commercial airline passengers shouldn't continue to subsidize
corporate jets," said aviation subcommittee Chairman John D.
Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) during a Senate Finance Committee hearing.
"If we don't restore equity, then as chairman of this aviation
subcommittee, I will address the equity issue by looking for ways
to limit general aviation access to congested airspace."

And while neither Rockefeller nor Lott mentioned that S.1300 would
eliminate the 4.3 cents per gallon fuel tax the airlines currently
pay, it didn't slip past Roberts or Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.)

"I don't think that giving the airlines a tax break is the best
way to start modernization," said Roberts.

Sen. Bingaman questioned, with all that the FAA was trying to
accomplish, "why would you eliminate the fuel tax on the
airlines?"

And while Sen. Lott chastised most of the aviation community for
being unwilling to pay more, Sen. Roberts said that wasn't the
case for GA.

"The general aviation community is not unreceptive to an increase
in the gas tax," said Roberts. "They're for modernization as
well."