Page 77 - EAA78.Newsletter.Archives.(February.2017-July.2021)

CHAPTER CHATTER, EAA Chapter 78 2

What would such a plan look like? Jim Almon, CEO of
Blackhawk Modifications, has been behind the scenes
and watching the progress of this proposal since it was
floated and thinks it would be folly to abandon our
current funding system. He told Plane & Pilot that the
“bottom line is the payment method of fuel taxes is the
most efficient vehicle to pay for ATC services. It's
collected every time you buy fuel and has been
working for over 60 years. The only reason to change it
is to offload costs onto GA and that’s exactly what [the
airlines] intend to do.”

Click picture for AOPA’s concern about Trump’s ATC plan.
Since shortly after it was announced, every major
general aviation member organization has come out in
On Monday morning, we learned that any hopes we’d vocal opposition to the proposal, encouraging its
had that the president might go in a different direction members to reach out directly to their elected
were wishful thinking when he announced in a Rose representatives to voice their strong disagreement with
Garden event the very plan he’d hinted at in his any kind of privatization plan.
summary budget plan in March.

The plan Trump announced is one that has been We encourage you to do exactly that, as
making the rounds in the House for the past couple of well. I’m picking up the phone right
years. The architect of the ATC privatization bill, Rep. now!
Bill Shuster (R, PA), who a couple of years began
dating a woman who is an airline lobbyist, has
relentlessly pushed the bill over that period. Despite
Shuster's dogged support for the legislation, it has
gained little traction in the House. The Pennsylvania Quiz: Are You Ready
representative apparently found a more receptive
audience in the administration when Trump took office.
For These 6 Aircraft

The essentials of the proposal are not complex, though
its implementation would be. Under the plan all FAA Emergencies?
ATC functions would be privatized and run by an
organization that would be headed by a group that
would be selected by the department of transportation
and would almost certainly be dominated by airline
representatives. General aviation probably would have
light representation, but the effect would probably be
that it would be for show only, as the majority of voting
members selected by DoT would be probably be airline
representatives, based on President Trump's vocal
support of the industry during his remarks.

By implementing such a plan, the government would
give the airline-controlled organization the right to
implement user fees and eliminate airline fees at its
discretion. Its board would presumably end the current
funding mechanism of ATC, a tax on every gallon of
aviation fuel that’s sold in the United States, and create
new one, which no one doubts would resemble those
in countries that have adopted such privatization
schemes.