true true 0 <img src="http://realestate.halogenguides.com/image/show/bombardier-challenger-300.jpg" title="Private Jet - Bombardier Challenger 300" alt="Private Jet - Bombardier Challenger 300" class="floatright"/>The U.S. Senate voted 88-0 in favor of hiking taxes that private jet owners pay for fuel. Presidential candidates Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), Hillary Clinton (D-New York), and Barack Obama (D-Illinois) were among the twelve who did not vote. The procedural vote is part of a painstaking effort to complete a bill for reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration. The tax hike will go to pay for a much needed overhaul of the aging FAA air traffic control system. Under the bill, private jet owners will pay a tax of 36 cents per gallon of gasoline, up from the 21.8 cents they pay now. The 65% increase is less than had been originally proposed by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate aviation subcommittee. Sen. Rockefeller wanted to double the tax business jet owners pay for fuel. Advocates for the airlines have argued in recent years that much of the stress on the current air traffic control system is due to the proliferation of private jet use, and that private jet owners and operators should do more to shoulder their burden. Air traffic controllers must devote the same amount of time and resources to each plane, regardless of whether it&#8217;s a light jet carrying four business flyers, or a wide bodied airliner with 200 aboard. Currently private jets pay three percent of the total federal aviation costs. The new bill will raise this figure to five percent. While it&#8217;s unlikely that private jet owners will be particularly pleased to be paying a higher tax on fuel, they can at least be thankful that the private jet industry&#8217;s lobbying group, the NBAA, was successful in ensuring that the bill did not contain any increase in user fees for jets. The airlines had pushed for user fees on private jets which would place an even greater load on private flyers. The Senate bill, if passed, will have to be reconciled with a bill passed in the House last September before it lands on the president&#8217;s desk. Last year, President Bush threatened to veto legislation which did not pass on more fees to private jet users. But with an accord reached in the House and Senate, and the FAA&#8217;s air traffic control system in urgent need of an upgrade to a satellite based system, it is likely that Mr. Bush will assent to the compromise. 2008-04-29T11:42:33Z 1 true 1164 true false 2008-04-29T11:42:00Z true false senate-bill-calls-for-higher-taxes-on-jet-fuel-for-private-flyers false 0

The U.S. Senate calls on private fliers to help fund an overhaul of the FAA air traffic control system by paying higher taxes on jet fuel.

Article 2009-02-14T23:39:04Z 385 29