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https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20150&cosponId=19272
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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2015 - 2016 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: November 16, 2015 10:08 AM
From: Senator Mike Folmer and Sen. David G. Argall, Sen. Mario M. Scavello, Sen. Gene Yaw, Sen. Patrick M. Browne
To: All Senate members
Subject: Resolution urging Congress to support a Passenger Facility Charge increase
 
In the near future, we plan to introduce a resolution calling on Congress to support an increase to the Passenger Facilities Charge (PFC) for commercial airports controlled by public agencies. Several airports across the state have brought this issue to the attention of the Senate Aviation Caucus.

In 2010, Pennsylvania’s public use airport supported approximately 304,400 jobs, generated $9.2 billion in annual payroll and produced $23.6 billion in annual economic activities.

The PFC is a local user fee collected for every boarded passenger. The user fee is collected at the point of sale and determined locally. In 1990, Congress authorized PFC to allow airports of all sizes to meet their capital needs to finance Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved projects such as terminals, parking and multimodal projects that enhance the safety, security, capacity, noise reduction and increase air carrier competition.

Congress last raised the PFC cap to $4.50 in 2000. Since then, inflation has eroded the buying power of PFCs by approximately one-half due to rising construction costs.

There is a growing recognition for the need of such infrastructure financing and funding to keep pace with inflation and is consistent with the transportation package (Act 89 of 2013) of recently passed.

Based on feedback the Senate Aviation Caucus has received, raising the PFC cap to $8.50 and indexing it for inflation would restore its original purchasing power, and would give local airports the ability to set their individual PFC user fees based on locally determined needs.

Over the next five years, airports will require over $75 billion to improve infrastructure to prevent passenger delays and congestion. However, direct federal funding through the FAA Airport Improvement Program has declined 10 percent over the past six years, covering only a fraction of the total infrastructure projects required to upgrade and maintain a world-class aviation system.

Our proposed resolution would urge Congress to modernize the federal cap on the locally set PFC user fee by setting it at $8.50 and adjusting it periodically to offset the impacts of inflation.



Introduced as SR261