Just got this from AOPA, thought I would share!!
GT

Dear GT,

Regrettably, general aviation user fees are back. They have come at the worst possible time, and they are coming in through the back door in a most challenging way.

I need to say right up front, we need your help. We need every member of the general aviation community to reach out now and let your congressman and senators know that general aviation user fees are wrong!

In the past, user fees have appeared as part of various bills and budget proposals. It’s different this time. There is no piece of legislation I can point to and no specific proposal for us to shoot at. We know user fees are being discussed in the debate over deficit reduction going on in Washington, D.C. But for now, the issue seems to be lying just below the surface. What form user fees might take and who would be affected is not yet clear. Some are saying the fees could be $25 or $100 or more. They might be applied when you file a flight plan or contact air traffic control. For now, there are few specifics, but we are certain that user fees, in one form or another, are back on the table.

Regardless of the form these fees take, experience in other countries has shown that user fees stifle aviation and compromise safety. What's more, imposing user fees always creates a new, expensive bureaucracy just to collect the money; and over time, those bureaucracies expand, needing ever more money from more and more types of aircraft. It just doesn't make sense, and it is a very dangerous path to start down.

Time and again we've seen that fees designed to do one thing are actually used for another—and all too often the fee structure has unintended consequences. For example, a fee paid at departure could persuade some pilots to try to stretch their fuel to minimize the number of departures they make on a given trip. Fees on instrument operations discourage pilots from going out and maintaining proficiency. And fees on flight plans…well, you get the idea.

We understand the challenge our nation faces. We have record high spending and record high deficits and a national debt that has also soared to new heights. These numbers must come down. In the process, the general aviation community may pay more. In fact, an increase in the aviation fuel tax is contained in the FAA Reauthorization Bill pending before Congress—a measure we’ve supported for at least three years. This provision would require us to pay more at the pump, but we’ve been paying into the system in this way since the beginning of powered flight. Our charges are applied and collected at the pump—no new bureaucracy required.

We need your help to stop this bad idea from turning air traffic controllers into tax collectors.

Please contact Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers at (202) 225-2006 and politely ask them not to support user fees. Make the point that user fees are inefficient, expensive to administer, and can compromise safety.

We’re willing to do our share, but let’s do it the smart way.

Thank you for your support and thank you for making an essential effort now to protect our freedom to fly.

Sincerely,

AOPA President Craig Fuller

***THREAD HIJACK***

Speaking of user fees. I was in Canada almost 2 months ago. I landed and took off from Victoria. I thought I would get a bill sent to me. Anyone out there in the know on this?

***HIJACK OVER*** we now return you to your regularly scheduled program.***

According to the proposals I can find any reference to, the proposed user fees would be restricted to the 30 largest hub airports in the US. Can someone clarify how this affects podunks like myself? The current system is a bit lob-sided as far as I can tell. In other words, podunkers are paying far more for actual services/facilities rendered for VFR or IFR flights than heavy metal folks. The FAA has disclosed this time and time again. The current tax system also pays out-sized proportions for specifically enlarging airports for an absurdly small number of heavy metal operations per year with no comparable investments specifically supporting smaller piston operations. I have not heard any proposal that would charge podunkers anything more, or every time a flight plan was issued, etc.

While suspicious, I think a lot more information is necessary before everyone gets their knickers in a bunch. If user fees are going to be charged to podunkers, it will indeed break the backs of many passionate flyers.

While normally I would agree that larger airport fees would level the playing field somewhat, I'm distrustful of the fed enough to suspect this is just a first step. We pay our share, as a consumption tax on fuel. That's enough. Adding fees to airplane users will kill recreational aviation in this country. Pay to utilize ATC? People won't do it, to their detriment. I have to say I'm against.

KB

HighJacker Maule
Usually takes me about 4-6 months before I get a bill, You have to pay in CA. funds also??
It's the government, remember?
GT

M6RV6 wrote:HighJacker Maule
Usually takes me about 4-6 months before I get a bill, You have to pay in CA. funds also??
It's the government, remember?
GT

Thanks George

The trend for the last 100 years has been for government to get increasingly larger. If you think that this bulging government is self suficient then you are nuts. Who else is going to pay these guys. The only way to get away from more taxes and fees is to make government smaller. As If.

Tim

OregonMaule wrote:***THREAD HIJACK***

Speaking of user fees. I was in Canada almost 2 months ago. I landed and took off from Victoria. I thought I would get a bill sent to me. Anyone out there in the know on this?

***HIJACK OVER*** we now return you to your regularly scheduled program.***

AKDot:

If you're reading this, I got my fees waived when I used to fly through in the T-Cart. It's empty weight was so light that it didn't appear on their fee schedules.

Cheers,

-DP

This is what Ron Paul has to say about HR 2560

When I say this bill sanctions the status quo, I mean it quite literally.

First, it purports to eventually balance the budget without cutting military spending, Social Security, or Medicare. This is impossible. These three budget items already cost nearly $1 trillion apiece annually. This means we can cut every other area of federal spending to zero and still have a $3 trillion budget. Since annual federal tax revenues almost certainly will not exceed $2.5 trillion for several years, this Act cannot balance the budget under any plausible scenario.

Second, it further entrenches the ludicrous beltway concept of discretionary vs. nondiscretionary spending. America faces a fiscal crisis, and we must seize the opportunity once and for all to slay Washington's sacred cows – including defense contractors and entitlements. All spending must be deemed discretionary and reexamined by Congress each year. To allow otherwise is pure cowardice.

OregonMaule wrote:...... I was in Canada almost 2 months ago. I landed and took off from Victoria. I thought I would get a bill sent to me. Anyone out there in the know on this?....

Nav Canada will send you a bill for "air traffic control services used by or made available to you". This is triggered by landing at a Canadian airport- talking to them for advisories without landing there is free. As I recall the NavCanada fee is $20-25 CDN, & covers you for that quarter. That seems reasonable to me- I don't mind a user fee IF it's kept reasonable.
What is that yearly customs sticker fee if not a user fee? I don't have too big a problem with it because $25 for a year's coming & going seems reasonable to me. It is a bit steep for one entry but that's how it goes.
If youlisten in to center or even tower freq's it's real apparent that the airlines are getting the most benefit from ATC services, and therefore who should be paying the lion's share.

hotrod150 wrote:
What is that yearly customs sticker fee if not a user fee? I don't have too big a problem with it because $25 for a year's coming & going seems reasonable to me. It is a bit steep for one entry but that's how it goes.

There's no fee for a sticker so you can walk across the border. There is no fee for a sticker to ride a bicycle across the border. There's no fee for a sticker to drive a car across the border. There's no fee for a sticker to ride in an airliner across the border.

Private pilot? Pay a fee, display your sticker, or there will be a $5000 fine and your airplane will be confiscated.

It seems damned unreasonable to me.

Kevbert
Not arguing at all and I agree, It is ludicrous that you can become a criminal and get a $5000 fine for flying your private aircraft out of the country!! and another $5000 if you fly it back with out filing eapis!!
There is a fee for a 135 aircraft they have to have a sticker, and a $50,000 bond to cross the border, if you drive a commercial vehicle across the border there is a fee
I'm not sure what happens if you don't have a sticker?? I know you can't file eapis with out one??
Just kinda piss's you off does it not!!