|
This page contains the Legislative Corner articles from our Chapter
newsletter as well as other timely items. These are also part of an update
provided during our monthly Chapter General Meetings
Legislative Corner
by Les Smith
In
Olympia,
The House
Judiciary Committee moved for HB 2244 to go before the House for a vote. You may
recall that the bill provides for an edit of the state’s Recreational Use
Statute that would include aviation in the items private landowners would be
afforded liability protections. House leadership has not yet scheduled that
vote. A similar bill in the state Senate remains in committee. For an update on
the latest on this bill, visit
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?year=2012&bill=2244
House Bill
2089 has been reintroduced in the state’s 2012 session. It calls for a one
percent excise tax, based on most recent purchase price or an assessment that
would be required of the state Department of Revenue. The one percent assessment
would be for the value of the aircraft above $75,000. How the value is arrived
at is the subject of a new section 3. You can view the proposed bill, by
visiting
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2011-12/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/2089.pdf
In
Congress,
After five
years and 23 short-term funding extensions, Congress now has before it a funding
bill that will support the FAA for four years.
It is expected to pass. The
bill provides for $63 billion, which includes:
·
authorizes $13.4
billion for airport improvement projects
·
funding subsidies for rural airport commercial operations at $190
million per year
·
addresses through-the-fence
operations, allowing airport access to adjacent property owners
·
outlines an
incentive program to help GA pilots equip for NextGen
·
a new FAA post -
Chief NextGen Officer
·
new labor rules that
will make it harder for airline employees to unionize, requiring half the
workers in a bargaining unit to petition for a vote to certify a union. This is
an increase from the current 35 percent.
Congress now needs to vote on the
bill before Feb. 17, when the current short-term extension, passed last
December, expires.
LightSquared may have been dealt a serious blow in its dispute over interference
with GPS receivers. A letter sent to the USA's Department of Commerce by the
National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee (PNT
ExComm) has warned that it cannot see any viable solution to the problem. "Based
upon this testing and analysis, there appear to be no practical solutions or
mitigations that would permit the LightSquared broadband service, as proposed,
to operate in the next few months or years without significantly interfering
with GPS. As a result, no additional testing is warranted at this time," the
memo said.
Responding to the memo, LightSquared's primary financial backer, Harbinger
Capital said "We are confident that the tests, when the protocol is disclosed
and the details are examined, will be shown to be invalid. The devices chosen by
GPS manufacturers to be tested were selected to ensure failure. They included
obsolete GPS receivers (some a decade out of production) and niche-market
receivers." [Editor’s note: those “niche-market receivers” include the GPS in
your iPad and other portable GPS products] The financial firm added that "This
is nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt by government agencies to protect
the interests of the GPS industry who are unauthorized users infringing on
spectrum licensed to LightSquared."
Feel like flying up the Washington
Coast? Plan above 2,000’ msl or you may find yourself facing up to $100,000 in
punitive action. An unprecedented Final Ruling has been issued by NOAA governing
overflights of certain West Coast Marine Sanctuaries, including the Monterey
Bay, Channel Islands, Gulf of the Farallones and our own Olympic Coast National
Marine Sanctuary. Flights below 2000 feet are prohibited within one
nautical mile of Flattery Rocks, Quillayute Needles, or Copalis National
Wildlife Refuge, or within one nautical mile seaward from the coastal boundary
of the sanctuary. Furthermore, the enforcement of this ruling has, with the
cooperation of the FAA, been granted to NOAA. Particularly troubling in this
ruling is the use of a legal term called “rebuttable presumption”. This means
that any pilot who flies below 2,000 feet msl in any of the West Coast Marine
Sanctuaries has disturbed the wildlife there. Once NOAA advises that an
operator has violated “their airspace”, pilots will be forced to prove wildlife
was not disturbed in order to avoid sanction. Penalties will be based on
observations from the ground by personnel who do not necessarily have any
aviation knowledge, training, or specialized equipment to make accurate
calculations of an aircraft’s altitude. Fines as high as $100,000 could be
leveed. Only 169 public comments were received nationally during the NPRM in
December, 2010 through February, 2011.
You can read the details of the
final ruling here:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-01-26/pdf/2012-1593.pdf
[TOP]
Legislative Corner
February 2012
by Les Smith
The 2012 WA State Legislature Regular
Session began Monday, Jan 9. Legislative members have been busy promoting their
legislative ideas, even during the holiday lull after the 2011 Special Session
adjourned on Dec 14. No specific action regarding excise tax has been detected
thus far. With the “kick-the-can-down-the-road” behavior observed during the
2011 special session, there are rumors that this type of behavior will continue
into mid-February. Nevertheless, we must anticipate that when they start looking
for ways out of the state’s projected $1.6 billion shortfall, they may come our
way in one form or another. Keep your powder dry and stay prepared to be called
upon for contacting your district’s legislators and defending GA.
There may not be any action yet for
excise tax, but the following needs your help now!
All states in the USA have recreational use
statutes that immunize landowners from liability when they allow the public to
enter their land for recreational activities. Few states, however, expressly set
forth airstrips and associated aircraft operations as a form of recreational
activity.
The Recreational Aviation Foundation is
working to change that in WA. They have already successfully done so in a number
of other states, Kansas most recently. Representatives from RAF, WPA WASAR, and
WSPA met with Tristan Atkins, the new director of WSDOT Aviation Division to ask
the Division’s support in moving legislation through Olympia that would include
aircraft to WA’s Recreational Use Statute (it currently mentions only hang
gliding and paragliding aviation activities). Sponsors have been lined up in
both the House and the Senate. The cost for such a bill is quite low and offers
an opportunity for lawmakers, who are hungry for a chance to demonstrate
cooperation both across parties and across the House and Senate. As Tristan,
said, in agreeing to add the Division’s support, “This seems like a no-brainer!”
Please add your
support to this bill.
How to proceed:
Go to our Chapter website
http://www.wpaflys.org/Chapters/Paine/index.htm and click on the “ADVOCACY”
button on the left side of your screen.
Enjoy the freedom of flight, and remember that your freedoms come from
the actions of the citizenry!
[TOP]
Legislative Corner
January
2012
by Les Smith
Welcome to a new item in the
chapter newsletter. Our new chapter president, Steve Waterman, has requested
this new feature. The four pillars of WPA are Advocacy, Outreach, Education, and
Social Activities, and we each have our own opinion of which is most important.
While there are many opinions, one could suggest any
one of the pillars to be the most important at a given time. For this
column, yours truly will deal with Advocacy. Since WPA focuses on state issues,
I’ll try to do the same, but some issues at the national level deserve our
attention as well.
The special legislative session, in Olympia, appears to
have concluded without affecting the cost of aviation for us in Washington.
There is little doubt that the new 2012 session, which convenes January 9th,
will find its way to reconsidering how we “rich pilots” can be called upon to
contribute greater revenues (in other words, taxes) to the state. With that in
mind, the WPA State Board voted to contribute $1,000 in support to WAMA
(Washington Airport Management Association) with the lobbyist they have retained
for work in Olympia. This lobbyist has successfully served WAMA, The Washington
Aviation Coalition and WPA well over the last two years and the Board felt it
appropriate to put a little skin in the game.
So, enjoy your holiday and be prepared to lock and load for
a communication campaign with our State Legislature in 2012. Just as your vote
counts, so do your letters, emails and phone calls.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
| 
