Tallahassee, FL - Flagler Executive Airport Director Roy Sieger traveled to Tallahassee on Wednesday to address a new amendment in the Florida House that would reduce the sales tax on aviation fuel.
According to Flagler County officials, Florida airports agreed in 2016 to a “revenue neutral” change that would reduce the excise tax to 4.27 cents per gallon, effective July 1, 2019. The proposed amendment, PCB WMC 18-03 a8, would reduce the sales tax on aviation fuel even further to 2.85 cents per gallon.
Sieger voiced his concerns about the amendment to the House Ways and Means Committee. “We don’t even know what effect the 4.27 cent sales tax is going to have on airports, let alone a further reduction,” Sieger told representatives of the Florida House. “All of the aviation fuel sales tax monies go into the state trust fund, and then they are distributed based on demand. Commercial airports get the lion’s share, as it should be, because their demand is greater.”
Officials at the Flagler Executive Airport say there could be less money available from the trust fund once airports with greater needs get their share. “We’ve been able to complete several projects a year,” explains Sieger. “This proposal means that we might have to scale back to maybe one project a year.”
Flagler Executive Airport has completed 38 projects totaling $35.6 million since 2009. The latest project was the relocation of Runway 11-29. The new 5,500-foot runway is the single largest project undertaken at the airport. The project cost $12.2 million. Of that total cost, the Florida Department of Transportation paid $2.72 million from the state trust fund. The Federal Aviation Administration paid $9.33 million. The remaining $128,934 was paid from the Flagler Executive Airport Enterprise Fund.
Sieger told the Florida House that airports, seaports, rail, and spaceports are allotted only 15% of the total Florida Department of Transportation trust fund. Sieger claims that decreasing the fuel tax won’t make airlines more competitive.
The House Ways and Means Committee approved the amendment, and the amendment will go to the Senate next week. Sieger will travel to Tallahassee again to speak before the Senate.
Copyright Southern Stone Communications 2018.
