# SAVANNAH HILTON HEAD .--------1 N T E R N A T I 0 N A L

SAVANNAH AIRPORT COMMISSION

CHAIRMAN Sylvest er C. Formey

VICE-CHAIRMAN

Stephen S
. Green

COMMISSIONERS Shirl ey B. James Sheldon Tenenbaum Lois C.Wooten

LE

GAL COUNS E L J ames B. Blackburn

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Gregory B
. Kelly,AA.E.

ASSISTANT EXE C U T IVE DIR ECT OR John Rauback, AAE . December 7 , 2015 

### Mr. Byron K. Huffman Acting Director Airports Compliance and Management Analysis Federal Aviation Administration 800 Independ e nce A venue SW Washington, DC 20591 RE: Policy and Procedures Concerning the Use of Airpo1t Revenue Proceeds from Taxes o n Aviation Fue l. Dear Mr. Huffman, The Savannah Airport Commi s sion has not and doe s not rece ive any fund s re lated to local aviation fuel sales tax collections, nor does it, or has it received " offsetting" services from the taxing authority which applies taxe s to the s ale of aviation fuel at our airport. In fact, in the twenty-six plus years I have been at this airport this issue has never been brought up by the FAA tha t I am aware of ; until just after this year ' s Georgia State Legislative session which e nded in July, 2015. Now all ofthe sudden we have to tell the FAA how we plan to " amend any noncompliant state laws and loca l ordinances to conform to federal law" , and to develop reporting requirements and tracking systems related to local taxes collected by December 8 , 2015. While it is clearly in our own best interest 

### to get this done as quickly as poss ible, the December 8 111 dead l ine is not reasonable considering what we have to go through to come up with a v iable plan. We began working on this shortly after being notified in Augu st ofthis year and a s ofthis writing do not have enough information to prese nt a plan. We still have yet to determine the following: 1. Are the existing LOST, SPLOST, and ESPLOST being applied to sales of aviation fuel at our airport? 2. If so, what sales are being taxed? We know how much fuel is delivered to this airport but w e don ' t know whe re it i s being taxed and by who. 3. How much in terms of dollar s is being collected? We have our estimate but we nee d to c o nfirm thi s . 4
. Whether or not taxes applied under ESPLOST can be considered since those funds have to g o to e ducation c on stitutionally. We have been working with the State of Georgia Aviation Program Office and the Stat e of Georgia Depattment of Revenue (DOR) to get the se iss ue s resolved but, the DOR has advised us that it will not be able to get us the information we need until January of 2016 at the earlie st. We cannot move forward on this until we have accurat e information. The FAA should understand this and understand that we are fully en g ag ed in thi s and are making every effort possible to g et thi s re solved so we can pro vide the FAA with a meaningfu l plan.

400AIRWAYSAVENUE · SAVANNAH, GEORGIA 31408 • 912.964.0514 P • 912.964.0877 F • WWW.SAV ANNAHAIRPORIC O M

### It is our intent to request that the Georgia Dept. ofRevenue establish a protocol to send the local tax revenues collected directly to this airport instead ofto the taxing authority first. This will make it much easier for us to meet the reporting and tracking requirements established by the FAA. It is next to impossible for us to tell the FAA how we will report and track until we have the detailed information we need. Please contact me if you have any questions or need additional information and please consider this as our request for an extension on the submission date for our final plan.

Sincerely,

Greg B. Kelly , A.

GBK:mmd