Elimination of Tax Exemption for Private Activity Bonds Creates Disincentive for Airport Capital Improvement Funding

February 26, 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 26, 2014

 

WASHINGTON — Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) this evening issued the following statement in response to the tax-reform discussion draft released by the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee:

“The elimination of tax-exempt status for private activity bonds in the tax-reform proposal released this afternoon creates a major disincentive for airports seeking to secure cost-effective funding for necessary capital improvement and infrastructure projects,” said ACI-NA President and CEO Kevin M. Burke.  “As municipal issuers of private activity bonds, it is incredibly disappointing to our airport members that the House Ways and Means Committee effectively seeks to make this source of funding unnecessarily expensive and likely prohibitive in the long run.”

 

About ACI-NA

Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) represents local, regional, and state governing bodies that own and operate commercial airports in the United States and Canada. ACI-NA member airports enplane more than 95 percent of the domestic and virtually all the international airline passenger and cargo traffic in North America. Approximately 380 aviation-related businesses are also members of ACI-NA, providing goods and services to airports. Collectively, U.S. airports support more than 11.5 million jobs and account for $1.4 trillion in economic activity – or more than seven percent of the total U.S. GDP. Canadian airports support 405,000 jobs and contribute C$35 billion to Canada’s GDP. Learn more at www.airportscouncil.org.