by Tim Wood
Last updated: 1:42 PM ET, Wed December 11, 2013
UPDATED: Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013, 4:32 p.m EST
Congratulations, Congress, you did your job and passed a budget.
Lost amid all the self-congratulatory hoopla in yesterday's news was the fact that another unnecessary tax for airline travelers was left in the budget.
We told you last week of how the travel industry was fighting back against the proposed aviation passenger security tax hike.
Well, despite their efforts, the tax hike passed with a whopping 124 percent raise over what we currently pay.
What that means for you: the tax that's hidden on your final bill goes from $2.50 in security tax for each leg of a non-stop flight to $5.60 per leg. So you'll pay $11.20 for the roundtrip.
Multi-leg trips will be unaffected and remain at $10 total for the roundtrip.
The tax wouldn't so opposed if there was any evidence that the tax was going to improve the airport security infrastructure.
"Raising taxes is lose-lose for airlines, passengers, jobs and our overall economy. It's inappropriate for Congress to use airline passengers as an ATM when it needs more money," said Airlines 4 American president and CEO Nicholas E. Calio last week.
"Doubling the TSA passenger security tax would cost passengers more than $730 million annually, placing a huge additional tax on the traveling public, with no direct benefit to those who pay it."
The callous disregard for airline passengers has travel leaders upset and asking for answers, as it appears that fliers will absorb a fee so the Congress can shift around dollars to make the budget work.
"User fees certainly have their place-the transportation sphere is full of them. But a proper user fee must ultimately benefit the user, and it remains to be seen whether the air passenger experience will improve under the fee measures in the congressional budget blueprint," said U.S. Travel Association president and CEO Roger Dow in a statement today.
"It is concerning that the move appears primarily aimed at getting a big chunk of Transportation Security Administration funding off the strapped federal ledger, when there is agreement across the ideological spectrum that national security is fundamentally the responsibility of the federal government."
Business travelers are being unfairly hit just as hard and shouldn't have to carry the burden of an inefficient government, according to Global Business Travelers Association executive director and COO Michael W. McCormick.
"Road warriors strengthen the economy, create jobs and drive economic security. Yet governments insist on treating travelers like their ATM," McCormick said of the tax. "These types of punitive travel taxes will ultimately push business travelers to stay home, and we all pay when governments take a short-sighted approach that raises the costs for business travel."
Dow went on to outline his thoughts on how the tax could actually benefit passengers if implemented correctly.
"Examples could include broadening the enrollment effort for the successful PreCheck program, additional testing and acceleration of TSA's other risk-based screening programs, and boosting funding for redress programs," he said.
The budget was not a total loss for travelers. A proposed cut of TSA staffing of airports exit lines was scrapped.
"We are encouraged that the budget agreement will continue TSA staffing of exit lines from secure airport areas, the proposed elimination of which was a very flawed idea," Dow said.
Dow also delivered a backhanded compliment to the Congress for avoiding another government shutdown.
"We are also heartened that leaders of both parties took a major step toward restoring stability to the overall budget process," he said. "With the recent shutdown having cost the country $152 million per day, or $2.4 billion overall, in travel-related spending alone, it is critical that we not put the recovering economy through that kind of a shock again."
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