Scott wrote:

My AOPA renewal notice included another one of those blurbs about user fees.
Increased fuel tax, flight fees for turbines, etc. I wanted to throw out a
couple of questions....

What if ATC fees were limited to revenue flights, regardless of engine type?
Would dual instruction flights be included?

What if fees were proportional to the number of souls on board, or to the
aircraft's (net or gross) takeoff weight?

Also...is it true that airlines don't pay tax on jet fuel? If so, why has
nobody nominated changing that as a way of funding ATC? After all, it's the
airlines that reap the greatest benefit from ATC, not GA.

US Aviation taxes and their rates have changed continuously over the years, due
to legislative action. In 2001, the aviation fuels taxes were locked into the
airport & airway trust fund, instead of going to the general fund. This was a
hard fought battle, strongly supported by AOPA among others.

Today, there is a 19.3 cents/gal federal tax on aviation gasoline. I am not
sure if scheduled airlines pay the same rate. (e.g. Cape Air burns mostly
avgas, just as a GA Bonanza does).

General aviation is taxed 21.8 cents/gal on Jet Fuel.

Airlines and air freight carriers are taxed at a lower rate, 4.3 cents/ gallon.
This is because airlines (i.e. their passengers) also raise aviation and airway
trust fund monies through the 7.5% ticket tax and segment taxes and air freight
carrier customers pay roughly equivalent waybill taxes.