A severe fiscal drought has dried up some key revenue streams for the Town of Brookhaven, leaving officials little choice but to shed costs. Now Supervisor Mark Lesko wants a private firm to run Brookhaven Calabro Airport in Shirley, which has been losing the town roughly a half-million dollars a year. He's right, but there are some questions about Calabro that need to be asked first.

Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko takes a clinical approach to the town's monetary struggles with Brookhaven Calabro Airport — which is projected to lose a soaring amount in 2012.

"It's one thing to know how to run an airport. It's another thing to know how to make money running an airport," Lesko said.

There hasn't been a lot of good news about Long Island MacArthur Airport lately. Passenger traffic is down, and Southwest Airlines, the airport's major carrier, has no immediate plans to expand at the Ronkonkoma-based facility.

But the skies over MacArthur are not all cloudy.

Faced with a dramatic decline in passengers at Long IslandMacArthur Airport, Islip officials are looking for ways to revitalize the town-owned facility, which economists and business leaders agree is crucial to the region's future.

Among the ideas, Islip Town Supervisor Tom Croci said, are "exploring a light rail or people-mover between the LIRR [train station at Ronkonkoma] down the airport's east side . . . possible upgrades to the runways themselves, and other safety measures that would make MacArthur more attractive to airlines."

As NBAA previously reported, the Italian government has implemented a tax on all private aircraft that spend more than 48 hours on the ground in Italy. For many business aircraft, that could mean a yearly tax of over 300,000 Euros. This week, the Italian Chamber of Deputies passed new legislation that would significantly modify the tax. At the urging of NBAA and other stakeholders, the new plan would allow non-Italian registered aircraft to spend up to 45 consecutive days in Italy before being subject to the tax. The legislation is now headed to the Italian Senate for consideration. NBAA strongly supports this positive change and encourages legislators in Italy to act quickly. Learn more about the proposed Italian luxury tax on aircraft.

A “Proficiency Protection Program” that kept hundreds of unemployed business pilots and maintenance professionals current at no cost to them in 2009 is being reinstated by training provider FlightSafety International.

The re-born program will run through December 31, 2012. Pilots and technicians who became unemployed since January 1 of this year through staff reduction or job elimination are eligible for the training, which will be provided on an as-available basis.  Those taking advantage of the offer will not be required to repay the cost of the training or enter into a new training agreement once re-employed.

Business aviation groups have been working with the U.S. House General Aviation Caucus to repeal the fuel fraud tax measure, which requires noncommercial jet fuel to be taxed initially at the higher highway tax rate. They hope to get the repeal inserted in the House version of the highway reauthorization bill. The House and Senate must reach an agreement on either a short-term extension or a long-term highway bill this week before the current extension expires at the end of the month.

LIBAA President Joe Loccisano, Vice President Pete Pinzivalli and Board Member Sue Cosgrove attended the Council of Airline Maintenance Managers at Building 14 at JFK this month. The main purpose of attending was to reach out to our counterparts at JFK, LGA and EWR and let them know who we are and what we represent. It was a well attended meeting led by Robert Kennedy of Virgin Airways. We met the JFK Chamber of Commerce whose membership is up 20 percent this year and were invited to join them and the CALMM Linked In group. There were not only Maintenance Managers in attendance but also aviation educators, goods and services suppliers, and employment placement people. JFK will be holding a career day in May and we advised them of our Career Fair coming up in October.

Idaho Governor Butch Otter has signed bill H.417, which exempts sales tax on aircraft parts installed on out-of-state aircraft. An emergency clause included in the legislation makes the bill take effect immediately. “This is an excellent piece of legislation that creates a net financial gain for the state of Idaho,” said Jeff Mihalic, president of Western Aircraft. “It immediately levels the playing field and will create good-paying aviation jobs at Western Aircraft and at many of the other FAA-approved repair stations in Idaho.” According to Mihalic, the 6-percent tax on parts created a “significant economic disadvantage” for Western, particularly when it came to large refurbishment projects. “Over the past few years we’ve invested heavily in interiors and avionics capability and we’ve added the Challenger 300 and 600 series to our maintenance capabilities. We’ve also expanded our sales force to pursue a much larger market. Elimination of the sales tax will allow us to be more successful capturing new business and expanding our market share, which in turn drives our staffing requirements. Without this legislation, Western’s growth would be modest at best,” he told

Having failed to get helicopter noise legislation into the FAA reauthorization bill, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is now trying to attach it to the $52 billion federal highway bill currently being debated on Capitol Hill. However, the proposed amendment now is bi-coastal in scope since it affects the rotary operations over Long Island and Los Angeles County. The proposal mandates offshore routes for helicopters transiting the North and South sections of Long Island and requires the FAA to develop more restrictive flight paths for civil helicopters operating over the Los Angeles basin. The Helicopter Association International is urging its members to register their opposition with their legislators.