On Sat, 3 May 2008 13:12:50 -0700 (PDT), M wrote:

On May 1, 8:25 pm, wrote:


To me, the fuel tax is a very workable answer. You can charge it to
the little Cessnas and the big jets as well. It doesn't require any
additional overhead for accounting. The only issue there would be
those who are using autogas. But hey, nothing's perfect.

Autofuel includes 18.4c federal tax for the highway fund. Considering
FAA funding is partially coming from the general fund, I would say
autofuel pilots are paying their fare share of fuel tax.

That's fed funny money. The money comes from the Aviation Trust Fund,
but has to be funneled and approved through the general fund. IOW It's
aviation money, from aviation, earmarked for aviation, but has to be
approved as if it were the general fund (read public) paying it. This
gives the feds more control over what at first appears to actually
come from the general fund even when it doesn't. So they are
currently using it to argue for "user funds" when they have a working
system that could continue to be self supporting. What should be very
straight forward is very convoluted.


Roger (K8RI) ARRL Life Member
N833R (World's oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com