Sponsors
The bill gives certain localities greater flexibility to reallocate longstanding aviation-related sales-tax revenue to general local uses and simplify budgeting, at the cost of potentially diverting funds away from airport operations, reducing transparency, and creating uneven treatment between large-hub and smaller airports.
Local governments in the specified jurisdictions can redirect aviation-related sales-tax revenues to general/local services, giving them greater budget flexibility for schools, public safety, and other local priorities.
Large-hub areas named in the bill face fewer federal constraints on how surrounding local sales-tax revenue is allocated, simplifying local budgeting and infrastructure planning around major airports.
Preserves existing funding continuity for localities that imposed aviation-related sales taxes before December 9, 2014, protecting long-standing revenue streams used for local services.
Airport sponsors and users in the affected jurisdictions could lose a source of funds for airport operations or improvements if local sales-tax revenues are diverted away from airports.
Smaller airports or airports outside the designated large-hub jurisdictions receive no comparable relief and may face comparatively tighter restrictions, increasing inequity across communities and airports.
Taxpayers in the affected localities may see aviation-related sales-tax revenues redirected to non-airport spending, reducing transparency about how aviation taxes are used.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Exempts certain generally applicable local sales-tax revenues from federal airport revenue-use and written-assurance restrictions for qualifying jurisdictions with specific pre-2014 tax treatment and a very large hub airport.
Creates a narrow exception to federal rules that limit how airport-related revenues can be used. The law allows generally applicable local sales-tax revenues to be treated differently so they are not subject to certain airport revenue-use restrictions, but only for local governments that (1) had a generally applicable sales tax that did not exempt aviation fuel before Dec. 9, 2014, (2) are not the public airport sponsor, and (3) contain a very large hub airport with over 35,000,000 enplanements in 2021. The change amends two provisions of Title 49 of the U.S. Code to exempt those local general sales-tax revenues from the written-assurance and revenue-use limits that normally apply to airport revenue. No new federal spending or timelines are specified in the text provided.
Introduced December 11, 2025 by David Scott · Last progress December 11, 2025