Monday, April 16, 2007
Gaineville
airport, others getting passenger tax money while serving few of the
payers
The Associated
Press
ATLANTA - When NASCAR comes to town, Peachtree City-Falcon Field is
popular among the race teams flying in because it's only about 15 miles from
Atlanta Motor Speedway. The same is true for Augusta's Daniel Field when golf
enthusiasts from around the world flock to the nearby Augusta National Golf Club
eash spring for the Masters tournament.
These airports and 16 others
around Georgia - including Gainesville's Lee Gilmer - received a total of more
than $16 million the past two years from federal airline passenger taxes, even
though few of them serve the passengers who provided the money, according to an
analysis of government records by The Associated Press. (See breakdown
below.)
The funds, which are designed for airport improvements, come out
of the pockets of passengers through tickets sold by commercial airlines, like
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines. However, while those taxes are collected on
flights that mostly go through major airports, a share is directed to the
smaller airports that serve everyone else, from crop dusters and plane hobbyists
to corporate interests and the wealthy.
Officials from Georgia's smaller
airports say that's not the whole story. They say airplanes used at the smaller
airports contribute millions of dollars to the federal airport improvement fund
via a steep 21-cent-a-gallon fuel tax.
``It is quite a bit of money,''
said Coleman Sutton, fixed base operator at Cherokee County Airport in Canton,
which received more than $1.7 million the last two years and primarily serves
businessmen who fly in for meetings in metro Atlanta. ``But then a lot of money
we spend on the 21 cents (tax) are going to airports where there are a lot of
passengers.''
Sutton says the airport's share of federal funding is going
toward building a taxiway, fixing the runway and installing more hangars to
attract ``bigger jets.''
The AP found that passengers pay as many as six
separate taxes and fees on a single airline ticket, adding up to more than $104
billion over the past decade. Yet these assessments often are overlooked by the
millions who click the ``buy'' button to purchase tickets online, even though
they can exceed 25 percent of the total airfare.
The taxes and fees
finance the Federal Aviation Administration and its air traffic control
operations, as well as passenger and baggage screening, federal air marshals and
police presence at the nation's commercial hubs. Hundreds of smaller airports
also are among the beneficiaries.
The smaller airports say they need
those funds to complete major projects such as runway improvements that they
otherwise couldn't afford to finish. For example, some of the more than $3.8
million that DeKalb Peachtree Airport has received the past two years is going
toward a $3 million project to repair its deteriorating center taxiway, said Lee
Remmel, the airport's director.
When a disease outbreak happens, a plane
under contract by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lands
at DeKalb County airport to take government scientists anywhere in the world
they need to be. Likewise, the airport is home for corporate planes belonging to
Bank of America and Rollins, Inc. parent of pest control company
Orkin.
Remmel said although there are no ``revenue passengers'' that
airlines typically serve at his airport, the small airports throughout Georgia
generate money for the public through jobs related to the general aviation
industry and the taxes paid.
``The airport provides jobs for about a
thousand different people,'' Remmel said. ``We're the third-highest taxpayer in
DeKalb County.''
*A breakdown of those federal funds received by
Georgia's small airports in 2005 and 2006:
DeKalb Peachtree Airport,
$3.851 million
Peachtree City-Falcon Field, $2.9 million
Cobb
County-McCollum Field, $2.219 million
Cherokee County Airport, $1.725
million
Greene County Regional Airport, $1.5 million
Winder-Barrow
Airport, $850,000
Toccoa-R. G. Le Tourneau Field, $762,500
Lee
Gilmer Memorial Airport, Gainesville, $730,500
Malcolm McKinnon Airport,
Brunswick, $400,000
St. Marys Airport, $321,767
Herbert Smart
Downtown, Macon, $251,720
Heart of Georgia Regional Airport, Eastman,
$224,798
Washington Wilkes County, $204,000
Augusta Daniel Field,
$165,630
Roosevelt Memorial Airport, Warm Springs,
$158,095
Gwinnett County Briscoe Field, $121,445
Fulton County
Airport-Brown Field, $82,650
Fitzgerald Municipal, $68,400
Source:
Federal Aviation Administration