On Mon, 09 May 2005 14:54:49 -0400, Jonathan Goodish
wrote in
::

In article ,
Larry Dighera wrote:

I hope this isn't a 'divide and conquer scenario. First implement
user fees for airlines only, then once the fee structure is in place,
add GA to those paying user fees.

And then, shift more of the burden onto GA in order to kill it, which I
suspect the airlines would just love.

That's why I support keeping the source of FAA revenue tied to fuel
receipts. Those who burn the most fuel pay the most. There was 58
times more jet fuel than avgas sold last year.

I am a huge free market capitalist supporter, but the free market only
works when the market is free. Since the FAA will have a monopoly,
there will be little advantage for accountability and efficiency, and
potentially huge costs to those with the political short stick--which is
GA.

It's worse than that. Boeing has an ATC division that would love to
get the privatized ATC contract. Given Boeing's airline customer
base, that would be like putting the fox in charge of the hen house.

The trend toward user fees also needs to be accompanied by a reduction
in costs (won't happen if there's no competition) and a reduction or
elimination of the taxes currently levied to fund the FAA. The ability
of the FAA to operate with multiple revenue sources (taxes and user
fees) is nothing but a gravy train that demotes cost accountability even
further.

The National Airspace System, being a nationwide resource, should be
government operated. For the government to abdicate responsibility
for our skies to corporate interests is irresponsible. But the
Republicans have no more qualms about handouts to big business than
they have permitting oil drilling, logging, and mining in 1/3 of our
national forests as occurred last week.