The unfinished debate over highway funding in Congress is likely to ground hopes for passing a new funding bill for the FAA, according to a report from The Hill.
The FAA bill is scheduled to expire Sept. 30. But Congress is expected to return its focus on highways upon returning to Washington next month, because lawmakers punted debate on a long-term surface transportation-funding bill into October before leaving for their August recess.
Aviation advocates worry that this means aviation will get the short end of the stick when lawmakers return to Washington, according to the report.
Moreover, the FAA has interpreted a legal provision requiring that all “airport revenues” be used solely for airport purposes to apply to any lease or sale proceeds, which prevents a city from selling its airport and using the proceeds for its general fund. Another important factor is that state and local governments can issue tax-exempt bonds to finance airports because they are government-owned facilities.
As long as they are shrinking our numbers they should have to go down proportionally Also. In other words. We lose, They lose.
To Paul J. and All,
I think you meant to say is We may lose in pilot numbers but Win in less gov’t costs and intrusions.
Also, a system like AMTRAK or Privatization just won’t work. Nobody would be or could be held accountable and another crazy bureaucracy would again be created to block new ideas and innovation.
Sorry, the current bureaucracy is bad enough. The main thing with it is. The “Top people can be fired” however unlikely it is.
Just limit the top people to a number of 5 and watch the efficiency start winning. The system works well without 98% of the executives, directors and managers. Let the line people who do the real work “WORK”. The GAO and Inspector General can then be used to verify the all of the bean counter needs. Try it, it will succeed.
So it has come to this. FAA has been doing everything they can to drive light GA from the skies. The next step will be burdening us with fees to discourage the use of those services that keep us alive. There are only two answers. Make a real effort to reduce the budget for those things that provide little benefit ie: the bureaucracy that processes pointless third class medicals. Make use of the existing fair and equitable taxation scheme that directly relates to how much a pilot flies and how complicated his aircraft is. The current fuel tax collected at the producer level works well. It is an efficient and transparent tax collection mechanism that requires no new bureaucracy to manage. Just raise the damn fuel tax if you must.
Sorry Bill,
I just can’t accept raising the fuel tax. The problem I see is with the bureaucracy itself. All the gov’t people want to make more money without producing results. The taxpayer isn’t getting a bargain, it’s the upper echelon who is. Example, an average gov’t employee making 100k or more a year gets a nominal 5% raise is really getting a heck of allot more than someone in the 50k bracket. Also, there are allot of 100k gov’t employees around. Check out there pay and benefits schedules. It’s true.
The people who went into gov’t service knew it was a low paying and low risk job that is almost guaranteed for life. They should not expect to become millionaires or live high on the hog because of their gov’t service. That’s not how our great country was founded. It seems like the stereotypical third world South American countries that have peasants come from nothing and in a very short period of time become multimillionaires and leaders of countries while only being a gov’t employee. It’s all very strange but true. Just look a some of our recent politicians. Some have only worked in gov’t and now they are multimillionaires have very large foundations taking care of many of their needs. Hmmm.
I suggest we get rid of 3/4 the of the managers/supervisors/directors (and all the fancy names they use) so we wont need to raise the fuel tax. It will also automatically streamline everything and become more efficient. Again, just say NO and reduce the size of the FAA dramatically.
Yes, it is very interesting with a dramatic reduction of the pilot population since the 1970’s the FAA continues to grow in size and budget. My question is , Why ? Do we really need this much gov’t. ? answer , NO. Now is the time to just Say No. The taxpayers don’t want it.
Sorry FAA, you guys have lost your way. You are wasting our money. We are never going to get back to those hey days of aviation because of the advent of the internet, IPod’s, and smart phones.
Please, Just stop wasting our taxpayer monies and provide the service required of being public servants to which all of you are.
Don’t try to be wanna be innovators at the taxpayer expense. It doesn’t work. There is just to many hands in the pot to make it happen. Big business can’t make it happen, even if they wanted to because of the time consumption problem. Also, there is the government bureaucracy factor and we all know all about that. It just won’t happen. The private sector will provide those innovations when it becomes necessary. The private sector is the only ones who can make it happen.
FAA, just reduce your size to fit the fleet and pilot population. Example, just reduce your size at least by 50%. That would be a good start. Heck, Law enforcement isn’t as big as you guys and they deal with criminal matters vs. civil matters as is the majority of what the FAA is involved with.
Turning the FAA over to private hands only makes for two giant bureaucracies to contend with. First , the government would end up in an oversight capacity able to pass blame over to the private firms in charge. Secondly, private firms would then be large enough to send lobbyists to D.C. and money to fund political campaigns. A perfect example is for-profit jails. In the attempt to reduce costs, states give prisoner to companies that operate as forced-incarceration motels for criminals. Like any motel, high occupancy rates mean larger revenues. Therefore private firms, not our justice systems, determine whether a prisoner stays in. Obviously, once a prisoner leaves, the revenue leaves, too.
Think this is fantasy? Just Goggle this stuff to learn how governments shirk responsibility in the names of costs reduction and shamefully leave the accused at the mercy of organizations that see profit as the sole motivation for even being in such a business.
It would not makes things better. Only make things worse. “Free market” solutions while hugely important, they are but one avenue for a sensible society. If “free markets” are the end-all, then let’s just privatize our military and see where that gets us.
Under able the direction of the FAA. The department has grown to record size and budgets !
However the number of Pilots in the USA has declined to less than at any time since WW two.
Maybe it’s time to examine the direction they’re headed before renewing their funding.
Time to turn it over to private entities ?
Maybe
Charlie
Golly gee Wally, do you think Representative Schuster can stabilize funding for the FAA by introducing user fees? Don’t be gullible.