| Summary |
Section 3 of the bill creates a state income tax credit for owners of
aircraft that incur qualified expenses to enable an aircraft that is powered
by leaded aviation gasoline to be certified to instead be powered by
unleaded aviation gasoline. Sections 4 and 8 provide explicit authority
in the existing state aviation grant program (grant program) for aviation
fund (fund) grants to general aviation airports and commercial airports at
which there is significant general aviation activity to fund the design,
engineering, construction, installation, acquisition, and inspection of
infrastructure, including equipment, that allows the sale of unleaded
aviation gasoline at such airports and to subsidize purchases of unleaded
aviation gasoline at such airports.
Section 6 increases the Colorado aeronautical board (board) from
7 to 9 voting members by requiring the appointment of 2 members who
are residents of communities that are affected by general aviation airport
traffic or traffic at a commercial airport at which there is significant
general aviation activity and makes the executive director of the
department of public health and environment (CDPHE), or the executive
director's designee, an ex officio nonvoting member of the board. In
appointing the 2 new voting members, the governor is required to give
priority to individuals who are not trained pilots and who reside directly
in the predominant flight path of a high-traffic general aviation airport or
a commercial airport at which there is significant general aviation activity
and in an area that has a population density of more than 3,000
individuals per square mile.
Section 8 requires prioritization of grant program grants to general
aviation airports or commercial airports at which there is significant
general aviation activity, as determined by the division of aeronautics
(division), in urban or suburban areas that use a predominant flight
pattern that includes a county or municipality that has a population
density of more than 3,000 individuals per square mile.
Section 8 also prohibits money from being expended from the
fund for an airport that the division has identified as being located in a
densely populated residential area or as having a significant number of
flights over a densely populated residential area unless the airport or
entity operating the airport demonstrates to the satisfaction of the division
that:
•
By January 1, 2026, it has adopted a plan for phasing out
sales of leaded aviation gasoline at the airport;
•
It has voluntarily established and enforces an effective
noise mitigation plan in accordance with specified criteria,
requirements, or guidelines that the division is required to
develop; and
•
It complies with the requirements of any avigation
easements or contracts that it has entered into.
However, the limitation on the expenditure of money from the fund does
not apply to money expended for an aviation project that is determined by
the division to be designed and intended to mitigate significant adverse
impacts on the health, safety, and welfare of individuals who reside near
the airport at which the aviation project will be completed. Section 7
imposes similar limitations on certain federal money that the state may
apply to receive for aviation purposes.
Section 9 requires the division and CDPHE to work together to
evaluate, prevent, and mitigate the adverse impacts of aircraft noise and
the use of leaded aviation gasoline on public health, safety, and welfare
and specifies prioritization and other minimum requirements for the
mitigation activities.
Section 9 also creates the unleaded aviation gasoline enterprise in
the aeronautics division of the department of transportation for the
purpose of remediating impacts caused by the use of leaded aviation
gasoline by imposing a leaded aviation gasoline impact remediation fee
on purchases of leaded aviation gasoline and using fee revenue to provide
grants, loans, and rebates to fund infrastructure and programs at general
aviation airports that are designed to increase the use of unleaded aviation
gasoline in lieu of leaded aviation gasoline.
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