Senate Bill S.786 could kill NWS internet weather products

On Sat, 07 May 2005 19:24:38 GMT, Matt Whiting
wrote in ::

Larry Dighera wrote:

On Sat, 07 May 2005 14:54:02 GMT, Matt Whiting
wrote in ::


If the private
enterprise is efficient enough that it can make a profit and still cost
less than a government agency, then it is a good deal overall.


It's difficult to envision a less costly and more equitable way of
collecting the revenue for ATC operation, than a tax on fuel.

I was talking more about the delivery of services costs than the
collection costs. I agree a fuel tax is pretty simple, however, do you
know how high that tax would have to be to support the entire aviation
infrastructure? I don't, but I'll bet it would be several dollars a
gallon at least. I don't know where to get an accurate assessment of
the real cost of our aviation system (airports, ATC, navaids - we'd need
to pay our share of the cost of GPS for example) or I'd make an estimate
of the cost per gallon. I suspect the fuel consumption figures are
available with some research, but I doubt all of the costs of the rest
of the system area readily available.


The aggregate cost of all government services provided aviation is
probably a staggering figure, but so is the amount of aviation fuel
consumed annually. AOPA's 2005 Fact Card figure is 18,857 million
gallons. Fortunately, Congress is only contemplating ATC
privatization at this time.