Tax cuts and reform for air travelers

The Hill quotes CEI`s Marc Scribner on the Passenger Facility Charge:

The Congress Blog has hosted two well thought out pieces on the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC), the fee charged by local airports for infrastructure improvements. Congress is going to debate the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorization bill this summer and the bill should lower cost for travelers while allowing local airports to improve crumbling infrastructure.

Marc Scribner, fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, made “The Conservative Case for a modernized Passenger Facility Charge.”   Scribner argues that the PFC is a user fee and as such “Congress should do the right thing and raise the cap on the PFC.” Scribner worries that if Congress does not raise the PFC cap from $4.50 per ticket, then Congress will shift cost by raising one or more of the taxes on air travel tickets to pay for airports upgrades.  Raising ticket taxes will allow even more taxpayers money to flow to Washington, instead of letting the local airports to raise the PFC user fee.  Federally funded airport improvements are an inferior outcome then letting the local airport keep a bit more money in the form of a higher PFC.