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President Biden wants companies that use U. S. airspace for rocket launches to start paying taxes on a federal fund that budgets for the work of air traffic controllers.
By Minho Kim
Report from Washington
Every time a rocket blasts off into the sky carrying satellites or materials for the International Space Station, air traffic controllers on the surface will have to take very important steps to ensure the safety of announcements and passenger planes.
The controllers, hired through the Federal Aviation Administration, close the airspace, provide real-time data on the rockets and their debris, and then temporarily reopen the airspace once the release is complete.
But unlike airlines, which pay federal taxes on the work of air traffic controllers every time their planes take off, advertising companies aren’t required to pay for their launches. This includes companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has announced more than three hundred rockets over the past 15 years, using satellites for its Starlink web service.
Biden’s direction will substitute for that. President Biden’s most recent budget proposal, released last month, suggests that for-profit local corporations begin paying for the use of government resources.
Commercial corporations are exempt from the aviation excise taxes that fill the coffers of the Airports and Airways Trust Fund, which budgets for the FAA’s paints and will raise about $18 billion in tax revenue for the current fiscal year. Taxes are mainly paid through airline advertising, which pays 7. 5 percent of the ticket value and an additional payment of between $5 and $20 per passenger, depending on the destination of the flight.
Biden’s budget proposal promises to work with Congress to review the design of taxes and percentage of operating costs for the country’s air traffic system. His promise is based in part on an independent safety review report commissioned by the FAA, which advises the federal government to update excise taxes. Taxes to qualify companies in the advertising area.
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