A Massachusetts state senator who proposed a bill to charge a $1,000 landing fee for virtually all general aviation aircraft now says he plans to “extensively revise the bill before it comes before the relevant committee,” according to a report by Gordon Gilbert of Aviation International News.
Massachusetts State Sen. Julian Cyr initially proposed “An Act to Mitigate the Climate Impact of Private and Corporate Air Travel” to reduce carbon emissions generated by what he sees as “luxury aircraft owned by the ultra-wealthy.”
“From feedback I’ve received from [aviation advocates] and others about the bill, it’s clear that more exemptions should be included,” Cyr told Gilbert. “Specifically, flights used for pilot training, sightseeing tours, and smaller Cessna-like airplanes and/or those registered in Massachusetts and owned by a Massachusetts resident.”
You can read more about Cyr’s planned changes in the full AIN article.
CONTROL & IGNORANCE. Follow the science, virtually no evidence of man made global warming and if there were no way of counter acting China and India. Go gettem Catsup Kerry.
As if we aren’t already paying high fuel prices in Massachusetts. My mom is in a nursing home in Great Barrington that is under the turn from base to final for runway 29 at KGBR. I have friends at KGBR but, I land at 1B1 just over the state line in NY because fuel is 53 cents a gallon cheaper there.
Perfect example of “Fire-Ready-Aim”. I hope he wears his mantel of foolishness & clown hat proudly in public. As insane as his original, ignorant proposal was; the scary part is many will see no problem with it.
Of COURSE it will be “revised”. I posted on the original article that this would happen. These things are always fishing expeditions to see what kind of push-back it generates. So they gradually keep ‘revising’ until the people either stop complaining or accept the new level of taxation. It’s the same old tune. Just the lyrics are changed. The net result will be a new tax. It won’t have any impact on global warming just another revenue stream. Count on it.
What they seem to be missing is what is happening in another high-tax state just to the south of them – New York. Wealthy residents and profitable companies are leaving the NYC area and moving to lower tax jurisdictions so they can keep more of the money they earn. Miami is now home to more than a few venture capital firms, the mayor made a specific pitch to them, clearly letting them know that Florida has no income tax. (And no snow.) Money goes where it is welcome, not where it is punished, and the tax revenues so beloved by politicians (of ALL parties) go away, too. Same thing is happening in California.
If you tax the rich enough to make them leave, the only people who will remain will be the not as rich, then the moderately well off, then the working poor, and as each group flees, the tax rates and tax burden for the people who are left are going to go way up to replace the state’s evidently God given guaranteed revenue targets.
People aren’t stupid – when a government says “we want you here” (which is nonsense, they couldn’t care less, THEIR jobs are secure) but give us all your money, guess what, the people and companies leave and the government’s tax base evaporates.
New York has realized (I guess they finally learned to count) that a MAJOR portion of their tax revenue comes from a few hundred very wealthy people and a few hundred major companies, and all of a sudden they are worried. They have good cause to be. Taxachussetts still has that very hard lesson to learn.
Further, when the profitable companies leave because of confiscatory taxes, the people who worked for them are now unemployed. That’s a triple whammy, no more taxes from the company, no more taxes from the employees, the state gets to pay unemployment. More – if there are no jobs to be had, property values go down and property tax revenues decrease, while law enforcement costs tend to increase in deteriorating neighborhoods. Economic death spiral anyone?
Taxes are like crack cocaine for governments – there is NEVER enough . ..
You would have loved Dwight Eisenhower
Well said. The sad part is that people who don’t have the common sense to see the effect of overtaxing citizens, i.e.the citizens move elsewhere, are elected in the first place. Herr Cyr’s plan doesn’t include expensive water craft that stop in the various harbors along the Mass shoreline, or the $100,000 vehicles that stop to spend time in the state.
Had a beautiful trip to Cape Cod last year in my old 182….the airports I visited at Chatham and Marston Mills will shut down if this is allowed to pass.
Why is everyone so surprised that the country is going to hell. You need only to look at the Democratic governed states to see where we’re all headed.
Don’t be shocked. The left will definitely be going after GA, especially since it’s still burning 100LL.
It is true, we have a problem with global. Aviation contributes with 3% to global warming. (Let’s talk about the other 97%!)
With his proposal for a 1000 $ landing fee State Sen. Julian Cyr disqualifies himself. There are too many people in politics, already, who think they are the only ones qualified to know what to do. We call them autocrats – and we don’t need them.
Does anyone know if all boats are charged a $1,000 fee to dock each time in Mass? Those rich yacht owners are just the same as the causal fisherman, right? A $ 5M yacht or $200 rowboat is all the same.
It is sad that our elected officials seem to do no research on items before they propose bills. It seems the listen to small groups with agendas and then fail to make any effort to get other sides to the story. Finding more sides to any story is not very hard, it is a shame they won’t do it.
Was there any question or doubt that this was proposed by a Democrat? That party needs to go…
This is how it starts.
Ignorant politicians with no understanding or research.
Exactly. Elected and repeatedly re-elected by us.
Not us….Dem voters.
There will be lots of unemployment due to this bill
as small airports and their fbo’s see their traffic drop
to miniscule levels. Trips to Cape Cod, MVY, etc for
a day trip or extended stay will become nonexistent.
The job losses will be on this Cyr idiots head.
I’ve never been to Mass. and now I can say I’ll never visit there. Instead of proposing a thousand dollar fine on landing aircraft, why don’t they pass a bill making it easier to get rid of mentally disturbed politicians. We’d all be further ahead…
You get what you vote for… Don’t blame me….I didn’t bite vote Biden.
Me either… Nor did 80,000,000 other Patriots
Yeah…probably not likely to pass constitutional muster under privileges and immunities. Discriminating against out of staters is generally looked down on. Imagine if states decided to charge more gas tax on out-of-staters…
Not going to happen.
In Mass ? Don’t be surprised if it does, in fact, happen.
Find out what these politician guys and gals do for their own “luxury” and call them out on it..or propose a fee for say “country inns and fine dining” which I am sure they frequent when getting paid off by lobbyist.
I am not ultra wealthy. I own a 1/10 share of a Skyhawk. Like most liberal ideas, this won’t do a thing to solve their imagined problems. It will only encourage aircraft to refuel at airports in nearby states. You wouldn’t even have to go out of the way as Massachusetts can be overflown in about 10 minutes.
Remember how these foolish taxes destroyed the boating community about 25 years ago? Along with all the ma and pa jobs that supported the boaters. Don’t let that happen to aviation!
👍
We all need to stand together and firm on all of this liberal Tax/ Fee Based craziness “Green” or otherwise. I have a little “Cessna like” aircraft and feel the ultra-wealthy guys earned the right to fly what they want. A fee against them is just as wrong as it is for me. The Fee crazed politicians, if we let them, will peel away the commercial guys, then the ultra-wealthy, Bonanza Drivers, and touch & go’ers via ADSB. When they get to the bottom of the pile, who will be around to stand with us little guys?? No we need to stand together. If we allow ourselves to be divided we will all be conquered.
Remember adsb was for safety, yeah right only about 20 percent of pilots in NewEngland have a legitimate use for adsb the other 80 percent just want to fly their planes to small airports for vacation ,work, eating out with fellow pilots not to mention our beaches .
4or5 thousand for adsb so big brother can spy on every move we make .That’s about 1 years operating cost on a 2 seat Cessna and it shows ,look at the tydowns in Ma.they are about a third of what they were in the eighties .
Good luck Massholes as the Maniacs up north always say happy flying guys and girls that what’s left of us.
hear, hear !!