Aviation user charges in Obama’s budget proposal
February 28, 2009
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the proposal on Feb. 26 and, although there is not much detail, the document makes it clear that the administration wants to replace some aviation excise taxes with “direct user charges”, starting in 2011.
The budget “proposes repealing some aviation excise taxes and replacing these taxes with direct user charges”. “Direct user charges are just another name for user fees,” Fuller stated. The proposed user fees would add up to some $7 billion in 2011, or about half of the FAA’s total budget.
The Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), a staunch opponent of user fees, released a statement saying: “I note that the budget appears to propose some type of aviation user fee. Aviation user fees have been proposed several times in the past by OMBs of various administrations, and have not been adopted by Congress.” Fuller testified in support of Chairman Oberstar’s bill, H.R.915, to finance the FAA through the current system of aviation excise taxes, earlier in February.
