by Yasmina Platt
AOPA Central Southwest Regional Manager
By the time you read this article, all of the legislative sessions in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa will have adjourned. Your association (AOPA) has been actively engaged in working on over 60 state bills in the Central Southwest Region this year, with 19 of them in those states mentioned above. Here are a few bills I think will interest you.
As of April 30, 2013, Nebraska’s LB140, intended to extend the approach zones from the current three (3) miles to 10 miles from the end of every IFR runway to improve safety and land-use planning, had passed the General File – the biggest legislative hurdle, and was placed on Select File. In the meantime, LB551, which we hoped to amend to include aviation as a recreational activity in the state’s Recreational Use Statute (RUS), was still waiting to be voted on by the Judiciary Committee. At this point, it will probably die in committee and be considered again next year.
Iowa’s HF605 and SF413, also meant to amend the state’s RUS to include aviation activities, failed to move because the House Judiciary Committee did not pass it. We will try it again in 2014, although the issues with the bills are outside the scope of aviation itself, like with Nebraska’s LB551.
Kansas HB2084 and HB2355 (same language) are intending to expand the existing fly away exemption of aircraft sales, as well as maintenance parts and labor.
In Missouri… SB26 would create a sales and tax exemption on all sales of new light aircraft, while SJR16 and HJR23 propose a 1% sales and use tax increase for 10 years, pending voter approval, and directs 90% of that revenue to the Transportation Sales Tax Fund. It is unclear to date, however, how much of that revenue would benefit aviation.
We are already formulating legislative initiatives for 2014… all to protect our freedom to fly and promote GA.
As I write this on April 30, the so-called “sequestration” appears to be put on hold until FY2014 for purposes of FAA layoffs; however, it is unclear how the Contract Tower and the Contract Weather Observer (CWO) programs will be affected in the next fiscal year. I will not dive any deeper into this topic as it is very much of a moving target and today’s news becomes old news in just a few days – watch AOPA ePilot for the latest news.
I attended the Missouri and Iowa Aviation Conferences in April where I spoke on developments in General Aviation… some good, some not so good as you all know. It was great to see and meet some of you there in Lake of the Ozarks and Des Moines, respectively. Missouri also celebrated its annual “Aviation Day at the Capitol” on April 9. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend due to a schedule conflict with a legislative hearing in Austin, Texas, but as always… it was a successful event.
As summer approaches, so do fly-in events. I love it! I hope to fly to Iowa’s first “Pilot Palooza” in Boone, Iowa on June 1, and the “Nebraska Airfest and State Fly-In” in Alliance, Nebraska on August 17. I hope to see some of you there. Otherwise, this year’s AOPA Summit is a great opportunity to catch up as well, set for October 10-12 in Fort Worth, Texas. FMI: http://www.aopa.org/summit/
News and plans change rapidly. To stay abreast of what is happening in your region or when I will be in your area, visit http://www.aopa.org/central-southwest-rm, where you can read current stories and blogs, as well as view the region’s Twitter feed. You can find my e-mail address there too.
