State Senator Rick Gudex (R-Fond du Lac) says officials with the EAA AirVenture shouldn’t have to pay $450,000 to the Federal Aviation Administration to secure air traffic control services for next month’s event in Oshkosh.
“I think this is bad politics,” he says. “I think that this just a way to stir up the constituency and kind of get things back in order in Washington. I don’t think they’re going to accomplish that.”
Gudex says fuel taxes that pilots pay are supposed to take care of air traffic control services.
Sequestration cuts had prevented federal officials from providing air traffic control services for this year’s event. Gudex says fellow Fox Valley state legislators signed onto a letter he circulated asking the FAA and members of Congress to work out the issue. EAA officials have since agreed under protest to pay the fee to secure the services.
The Republican lawmaker says the FAA was given the authority to move money around to accommodate things like air traffic control services for AirVenture but it chose not to.
Bob Nelson-KFIZ