BOISE — Sixty-one remote airports and backcountry landing strips in Idaho could gain increased funding through a hike in aircraft registration fees if legislation approved Tuesday by the House becomes law.    

    During Tuesday’s House floor debate on the legislation —– two related airport bills — Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace, said a funding shortfall has occurred recently at airport facilities in rural and backcountry parts of the state.

    “There’s been a significant loss of revenue lately because of the … decrease in backcountry flying, and whatnot, and the fuel tax on aviation fuel,” said Gibbs, floor sponsor of House Bills 117 and 118, (which both passed). “And so, we’re having trouble maintaining a lot of these airports that don’t qualify for federal funds.”

    HB118 would generate an estimated $167,000 annually by raising Idaho’s aircraft registration fees. HB117 would simultaneously create a yearly revenue loss of $13,500 to state coffers by eliminating a $6 per year registration fee for private pilots. Gibbs noted that that loss would be absorbed by the fee increase contained in HB118.

    Through the combination of HBs 118 and 117, the rural airports and backcountry airstrips in Idaho would receive an extra $153,500 annually to fund search and rescue programs, pilot safety programs and upkeep at those remote air facilities, according to the Idaho Transportation Department and Gibbs.

    “So, it’s much-needed,” Gibbs told the House. “…There’s considerable support within the (aviation) industry for this legislation.”

    Idaho community airports that could benefit from funds potentially generated by HB118 — if it becomes law — include those at American Falls, Bancroft, Malad City, Mud Lake and Soda Springs, according to information from the Idaho Division of Aeronautics. That agency’s information also indicates that state-operated backcountry airstrips at Bear Trap, Big Southern Butte and Midway would be among the locations aided by funds possibly generated by HB118.

    Backers of the bills have recently touted the potential laws as measures that would contribute to Idaho’s rural and tourism economies.

    “We’re really trying to support these backcountry airstrips,” said Mike Pape, the administrator at the Idaho Division of Aeronautics, following a Feb. 6 legislative committee hearing. “That’s tourism for Idaho.”

    Annual registration fees for airplanes for personal and recreational use — ranging from about 2,650 to 2,950 pounds of gross weight and costing $26.50 to $29.50 register based on weight — would triple to “just under $90 a year,” with HB118, according to Gibbs, who said Idaho registration fees were last raised for those aircraft in 1990.

    “The flipside of this, if you choose not to register an airplane in the state of Idaho, then it is assessed by the county assessor as personal property,” Gibbs noted. “So, it almost universally is to a person’s advantage to register than to pay personal property tax on these airplanes.”

    HB118 raises the state aircraft registration fee from the current 1-cent per gross pound to 3 cents per gross pound.

    “The existing cap on registration fees would be increased from $200 to $600 per craft,” HB118’s statement of purpose reads, in part.

    The pair of bills are now Senate bound after HB118 passed the House on a 49-20 vote and HB117 was approved 69-0.