Money grubbing FBO's

Gig 601XL Builder wrote:
Ross wrote:


I had that happen years ago DRIVING though Indiana. On my way back I
filled up before the state line. I have see it elsewhere also.
Fayetteville, AR (KFYV) does this. I always that was taxing a tax.
But, they can.



And it is a Fayetteville thing because it isn't done everywhere in Arkansas.




Yea I have refueled in other AR cities and did not have that. They do
not do it for autogas.

--

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
KSWI

They added all taxes on to the pump price.

I understand your frustration, but I truly wish EVERYONE would start
listing their prices separate from the government's price. We do it
that way in the hotel business, and it often startles people to
discover how much extra they are forced to pay for...nothing.

For example: Our price for a 1-bedroom whirlpool aviation theme suite,
with a full kitchen and delivered breakfast, is quoted as $99.95 --
NOT the $111.95 we are forced to charge our guests so that our gummint
doesn't have to do the extorting themselves.

Yes, boys and girls, that's an extra 12% larded on to your hotel
room. Suck it in and enjoy it. (And they're talking about increasing
it.)

Only when EVERYONE starts highlighting the rip-off by listing the
prices separately will we be able to stop our insane, insatiable
juggernaut of a gummint.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...

For example: Our price for a 1-bedroom whirlpool aviation theme suite,
with a full kitchen and delivered breakfast, is quoted as $99.95 --
NOT the $111.95 we are forced to charge our guests so that our gummint
doesn't have to do the extorting themselves.

I sure hope you let these folks know about sometime before checkout time.

I'd be pretty annoyed if the 'quoted' price was not the 'charged' price.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in
oups.com:

They added all taxes on to the pump price.

I understand your frustration, but I truly wish EVERYONE would start
listing their prices separate from the government's price. We do it
that way in the hotel business, and it often startles people to
discover how much extra they are forced to pay for...nothing.

For example: Our price for a 1-bedroom whirlpool aviation theme suite,
with a full kitchen and delivered breakfast, is quoted as $99.95 --
NOT the $111.95 we are forced to charge our guests so that our gummint
doesn't have to do the extorting themselves.

Yes, boys and girls, that's an extra 12% larded on to your hotel
room. Suck it in and enjoy it. (And they're talking about increasing
it.)

Only when EVERYONE starts highlighting the rip-off by listing the
prices separately will we be able to stop our insane, insatiable
juggernaut of a gummint.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"


Municipalities have hotel/motel occupancy taxes because those that pay
them don't vote in the municipality imposing them. They have forgotten one
of the reasons why we are not part of Britain - taxation without
representation.

Unfortunately, people on expense account don't give a damn about
taxes.

Only when the take gets to be onerous does it affect travel, and
that's mainly because corporations find other places to go. New York City
under Mayor Dinkins raised the occupancy tax to 20%. Coupled with their
sales tax and other taxes, the "take" by the city was 30% (and this was on
top of some of the highest hotel rates in the country), and that was high
enough to cause a drop in business which affected a lot more than the
hotels.

--
Marty Shapiro
Silicon Rallye Inc.

(remove SPAMNOT to email me)

My FBO is the only one on the field, and they do charge more than at
smaller airports not far away. However, they have an excellent flight
prep room with both WSI and internet weather. They haul my plane out
of the hangar when there's a ridge of ice in front. They bring fuel
to my hangar. They let me wash the plane inside their hangar on
Saturdays (or week days if they aren't too busy). They pick me up
from the train and bring me to the airport if I'm too loaded to hike
the mile. Although I won't let them do my annual, they have a shop on
the field when I find problems that need to be fixed before I fly. I
suspect that their airport fees have increased because of additional
airport security procedures since 9/11.

I don't begrudge them a decent profit margin; they are fine people.

On 27 Mar 2007 09:31:23 -0700, "xyzzy" wrote:

On Mar 27, 8:00 am, Jon Kraus wrote:
Got a fuel bill from our FBO (KUMP Indianapolis Metro) the other day.
Not only do they charge one of the highest fuel prices around, they also
charge 6% Indiana sales tax on top of the 1% Indianapolis Airport
Authority surcharge (because they can).

When I called to inquire about charging 6% sales tax on the fuel they
just said "that is how we've done it for 20 years and everyone else does
it like that too." I've never had a sales tax added on top of the fuel
price before.

I thought that all the taxes we included in the price of the fuel?
Anyone else ever experience this?

I know at my airport (KTTA in NC) my flying club rents planes wet but

Your club rents planes?
The club I was in had members who owned the plane. We did not rent and
our insurance wouldn't let us without paying one whale of an increase,
but we did charge ourselves so much per hour. The airplane(s) were in
partnership so only the owners were flying. Hence no sales tax. Who
ever flew was expected to bring the plane back to the hangar with full
fuel, or to the tabs in the summer.

we break out the base plane rental from the fuel, because we have to
charge sales tax on the rental but don't have to charge it on the
fuel, because the fuel price already includes all taxes. We verified
this with the state revenue department. It makes a difference of
about $2 in the hourly rates, and every little bit helps... I wonder
how many other places that rent wet are inadvertantly paying double
tax on their fuel (once when they fill the plane, then when they pay
sales tax on the wet rental).

OTOH I may have mentioned, the State of Michigan is strapped for cash
and some of the departments are really pushing the limits of legality.
One of the guys on the airport purchased a plane "FROM A DEALER" in
one of the southern states. It needed a bit of work but was in pretty
nice shape. However they wanted to move it and he picked it up for
about 20 grand less than book price. The state is refusing to take the
tax on what he paid legally to a dealer and is demanding tax on the
full book price. They can do that between individuals, but where the
dealer is accountable in their state as well as the individual here,
they are not supposed to accept the actual sale price.
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

They've been cash strapped for a decade or so now... WTF? Why don't
they vote someone in to do the job better? I moved from Monroe 26 years
ago adn have never looked back

Jon


OTOH I may have mentioned, the State of Michigan is strapped for cash
and some of the departments are really pushing the limits of legality.

On 27 Mar 2007 07:05:12 -0700, "Gene Seibel" wrote:

On Mar 24, 7:59 pm, "wise purchaser" wrote:
what has happened? I have been seeing multiple FBO's charging for
using the ramp from 10 to 25 bucks to park per day also RIPPING me
off for fuel. Charging almost 4.50++ a gallon for AVGAS. PLUS county
flowage tax!

http://www.airnav.com/ is your friend. I haven't bought fuel at home
for nearly 2 years. I make a fuel stop on the way out of town and an
hour or so before getting home. Small county and city airports all
over are trying to attract visitors by selling without the big price
markups. Support them and work the free market at the same time.

Unless it's close and at a substantial discount, I can not descend,
land, fuel up, take off and climb back to altitude for what I could
save at the cheapest place within 200 or 300 miles.

Clare 48D is about 20 NW and they used to be almost a buck cheaper
than here. If it was on the way, it was worth stopping However at $90
plus an hour I'll have a good half hour engine time taking off, flying
over getting gas and flying back. Only on long trips do I use 45
gallons and that would just be breaking even. Let's say I flew to PJY
which is a bit over 3 hours. Let's say it took 50 gallons for a
savings of $50 dollars, but that would add about 0.4 hours to the
engine so 90 X 0.4 = 36 or $50 - $36 = $14 saved but I've added a take
off and landing after fueling so after refueling I still have to fly
home and put the plane away. You wouldn't have to drop the difference
to much less than a dollar a gallon before it'd be costing me money to
save a little on gas.

OTOH if I'm just out playing around, or practicing and I practice a
lot then it makes sense to stop off and purchase fuel that is only a
little cheaper. Plus they have free coffee, donuts, and ice cream.

Locally we have little mark up, BUT the city was cheap and didn't put
in large tanks so they can't take a full truck load and that means
they have to pay noticeably more per gallon. When the FBO was selling
gas he had to pay a flowage fee on top of that. Now the city has fired
some one to operate the airport and being it's the city selling the
gas there is no flowage fee, but it's still about 10 cents a gallon
higher than most places near us.
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

For example: Our price for a 1-bedroom whirlpool aviation theme suite,
with a full kitchen and delivered breakfast, is quoted as $99.95 --
NOT the $111.95 we are forced to charge our guests so that our gummint
doesn't have to do the extorting themselves.

I sure hope you let these folks know about sometime before checkout time.

Oh, sure. In fact, we let them know the total including tax while
they're on the phone making the reservation, since we have to
preauthorize their credit card before they have a reservation.

By the way -- all hotel prices are quoted this way. Go to Travelocity
or Orbitz, and every hotel's prices are listed this way, thankfully.
I'll be damned if I'm gonna pay to post the government's extortion on
my advertisements. I sure don't ever see a nickel of it.

My real price, followed by a small "plus tax", used to say it all.
Now that the politicians have pushed that tax up to absurd levels --
12% -- however, that little "plus tax" can truly come as a rude
surprise.

And you can bet that I tell every one of my guests what I think of it,
at every opportunity.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Municipalities have hotel/motel occupancy taxes because those that pay
them don't vote in the municipality imposing them. They have forgotten one
of the reasons why we are not part of Britain - taxation without
representation.

Amen, Marty.

What really sucks is that -- with all of our hot tub suites -- many of
our guests are locals, especially in the winter. They're usually
young couples who really can't afford to go to Myrtle Beach for a
week, but they NEED a getaway weekend.

So they drop the kids with grandma and come spend the weekend with
us. Our winter rates are hard to beat, but it is SO unfair to tax
these kids at such a horrendous rate.

Maybe the business and university crowd don't care about taxes -- but
everyone else is sure hurt by it.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"