{"id":14742,"date":"2020-02-03T22:08:08","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T22:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=14742"},"modified":"2020-02-03T22:08:09","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T22:08:09","slug":"a4a-urges-congress-to-reject-increasing-airport-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/national-news\/a4a-urges-congress-to-reject-increasing-airport-taxes\/%20","title":{"rendered":"A4A Urges Congress to Reject Increasing Airport Taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Airlines for America (A4A) has urged Congress to focus on\nour nation\u2019s real infrastructure needs \u2013 like crumbling roads and deteriorating\nbridges \u2013 rather than digging deeper into the pockets of American travelers to\npad the coffers of well-funded airports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe support smart investment in infrastructure to addresses\nour nation\u2019s real needs,\u201d said A4A President and CEO Nicholas E. Calio.\n\u201cAirports simply don\u2019t need more money from taxpayers, and travelers don\u2019t want\nto pay more taxes. Time and time again, airport directors are unable to name a\nsingle improvement project that can\u2019t be completed due to a lack of funding.\nThe truth is that the Passenger Facility Charge is a tax on hardworking\nfamilies which airports simply do not need. With billions of dollars already\npouring into our nation\u2019s airports, fleecing travelers with unnecessary taxes\nis a bad idea that won\u2019t fly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Across the country, airport construction is booming. More\nthan $200 billion has been invested in runway, terminal and cargo facility\nexpansions and renovations as well as other amenities \u2013 all without a tax hike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, airports are in record-setting financial condition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>$3.6 billion: PFC taxes collected from air\ntravelers in 2018 \u2013 an all-time high<\/li><li>$7 billion: The unobligated balance currently\nsitting in the Airport Trust Fund. The Congressional Budget Office estimates\nthe Airport Trust Fund will hold $30 billion in surplus funds by 2030.<\/li><li>$16 billion: The amount of unrestricted cash and\ninvestments airports are currently sitting on<\/li><li>$3.18 billion: The amount of airport improvement\ngrants distributed by the Department of Transportation last Fall<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, airports are diverting billions of dollars\nalready collected from travelers \u2013 the same ones who pay taxes \u2013 to pay for pet\nprojects instead of putting that money toward infrastructure needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Travelers already paid $6.9 billion in airport taxes last\nyear. An increase in airport taxes is not only unnecessary, it is also\noverwhelmingly unpopular among voters. Eighty percent of participants in a\nrecent poll oppose increasing the cost of flying and feel that their money is\nbeing diverted from our true infrastructure needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Airlines for America (A4A) has urged Congress to focus on our nation\u2019s real infrastructure needs \u2013 like crumbling roads and deteriorating bridges \u2013 rather than digging deeper into the pockets of American travelers to pad the coffers of well-funded airports. \u201cWe support smart investment in infrastructure to addresses our nation\u2019s real needs,\u201d said A4A President [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14743,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14742\/revisions\/14743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}