By Annie Russo
At a Dec. 10 House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the DOT’s John Porcari highlighted the benefits the AMT exemption on private activity bonds has had on the economy, saying the provision “is helping us leverage our funding to get the most out of Recovery Act resources.”
The fact that Deputy Secretary Porcari talked about the AMT exemption during his testimony is great news for airports. It continues to beat the drum on this important provision and the bill and speaks to the need to permanently extend and expand the AMT exemption.
The FAA recently issued data on the economic impact the AMT exemption has had on the airport industry, which also supports the cause for permanent exemption: As of Dec. 11, $5.4 billion in AMT exempt airport private activity bonds had been sold since the beginning of 2009. Another $700 million in Build America Bonds, a new program included in the ARRA, have been sold by airports. Between the two provisions, airports have saved a total of $600 million – funding that can go toward airport infrastructure projects as well as debt reduction.
As we head into the final year of the two-year AMT exemption, it’s important that we, as an industry, continue to tell the Hill and Administration about the exemption’s positive economic benefits. It is also as imperative that the Administration continue to tell Capitol Hill about the economic impact of the AMT exemption, which will certainly help provide the political backing we need to not only exempt private activity bonds issued after 2010 from the AMT but also to allow for greater refinancing options of debt issued prior to 2003.