FAA Reauthorizatoin and Reform Act of 2011
Floor Speech
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Thank you, Mr. Graves. I appreciate your yielding time and I appreciate your bringing this amendment.
I rise in strong support of the concept in the amendment. Although I know it's going to be withdrawn, the concept is important, and we need to address this issue in this Congress.
This amendment would address the going crisis of discriminatory taxes placed on rental car transactions. I don't need to tell my colleagues how frustrating it is to go rent a car and see huge taxes on your bill, taxes put on your bill by legislative bodies that you don't get a right to vote on most of the time and that you don't get to vote on.
It's a simple thing for people to do. It's cheap taxes from State and local officials to let tourists pay their taxes for their sports arenas and other facilities. ``Don't tax me; don't tax thee; tax that guy behind that tree.'' That is not the kind of tax philosophy we should encourage, and we should make our State and local officials do taxation in the proper manner which is supposed to be with either property taxes or sales taxes or income taxes but not these types of taxes that discriminate. And my jurisdictions have done as well, but it doesn't make it right.
Rental car taxes target air travelers, but they also hurt low-income people who don't own cars and must rent instead. The 1994 FAA reauthorization bill included a provision to prevent taxes targeting air travelers to pay for projects that have nothing to do with air traffic. But State and local governments have exploited a loophole and raised billions of dollars through these taxes.
Since 1990, more than 117 discriminatory rental car excise taxes have been enacted in 43 States and the District of Columbia. I was in the Tennessee Legislature for 24 years, and we did our share. I tried to oppose some of them.
It's wrong and we need to act.
So I urge support for the amendment when it comes back up. I thank Congressman Graves for his work on the issues, and I look forward to working with him in the future to see this become a law in our Nation.
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