News & Information You’ll Want To Know
In Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska & Iowa
by Yasmina Platt
Manager, AOPA Central Southwest Region
All four of the legislatures in the Central Region have adjourned for the year (phew!), and we are pleased with the pro-general aviation legislation passed. At the time of this writing, some of the legislation was still pending each governor’s final signature, but we do not expect any surprises. We are working with their offices to ensure understanding and approval.
In Nebraska, Governor Ricketts signed two laws of interest to GA pilots and aircraft owners: 1) LB 469 modifies the existing Meteorological Evaluation Tower (MET) legislation to mirror the marking recommendations published by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and includes an enforcement provision to ensure that wind power companies comply with the law, and 2) LB 259, the Personal Property Tax Relief Act, reduces the tangible personal property tax burden on virtually any activity that produces income. This includes aircraft used for business by creating a $10,000 exemption on the assessed value of business aircraft subject to property taxation based on their net book value. Aircraft not used to generate income and agricultural aircraft were already fully exempt. We also thanked Gov. Ricketts for declaring May 2015 as “General Aviation Appreciation Month.”
Missouri’s House Bill 517, creating a fly-away exemption among other things, passed the legislature and is in Governor Nixon’s hands. The new law would exempt out-of-state residents from paying the state’s sales tax when purchasing an aircraft in the state, thus keeping more aircraft sales, aircraft maintenance, and aircraft upgrade work in the state. Missouri’s Governor, and the mayors of Jefferson City and Columbia, also recognized GA as an important economic generator earlier in the year.
After five weeks of “overtime,” the Iowa Legislature finally adjourned on June 5th. This year’s session will be remembered for its large number of important airport and GA-related issues and initiatives. I had mentioned the need to exempt flight training providers from provisions of an anti-fraud law that requires most educational entities (to include flight schools and independent CFIs) to obtain a $50,000 bond and submit documentation to the Iowa College Student Aid Commission. I had also mentioned the need to protect (rather than abolish) the Iowa Airport Zoning Act. The first one is awaiting Gov. Branstad’s signature and the second was already approved by him on June 22nd.
The one, very concerning Iowa bill, I had not mentioned because it snuck up on us at the 11th hour, was an initiative to change the existing process for considering the closure of Iowa airports, removing the existing state grant obligations and allowing airport sponsors to arbitrarily decide to close their airports if the cost of operating them “far exceeds the benefits.” It is not fair or responsible for taxpayer-generated airport funding (aviation specific or not) to be lost because an airport decides to close and does not want to pay the obligated improvement grants back. Instead, that needed funding can be reinvested in other airports with significant grant needs. AOPA (along with the Iowa Public Airports Association) respectfully urged the legislature to remove that hurtful language and it was, in fact, successfully removed.
In the midst of all of this (and, oh yes, work in five other states), I also had an opportunity to get together with the entire AOPA Regional Manager Team to discuss this year’s efforts and start preparing for next year; attended the Kansas Association of Airports (KAA) conference in Wichita, June 18-19; and participated at the 2015 Nebraska State Fly-in in Hebron by hosting an AOPA booth and speaking to a group of pilots along with Nebraska’s own Ronnie Mitchell and Congressman Sam Graves (R-MO). In addition, I also traveled to Missouri to represent AOPA at the Cameron airshow, speak at the 2015 National Piper Short Wing Conference in Branson on June 30th, and accompany our president, Mark Baker, at the 12th Annual Wing Nuts Flying Circus Airshow and Fly-in in Tarkio.
I look forward to hearing from you! @AOPACentralSW, yasmina.platt@aopa.org
