AOPA backs tax exemption for Massachusetts airports
11 private, public-use airports stand to benefit
AOPA urged Massachusetts lawmakers to back a tax exemption for privately owned airports that allow public use, noting the important benefits the owners provide by allowing public use are "easy to take for granted."
The bill presented by Rep. Kate Hogan (D-3rd Middlesex) was referred to the Joint Committee on Revenue, which held a hearing on May 13. Hogan's district includes Stow, where Minute Man Air Field has been on the market since 2019 when the longtime owners announced plans to retire. The airport is one of 11 privately owned, public-use airports in the state that provide a range of services, including disaster preparation and response; medical evacuation; and search and rescue, as AOPA Eastern Regional Manager Sean Collins noted in a May 9 letter calling lawmakers' attention to the fact that the state has designated the airports in question as "vital components of the state's system of airports and as catalysts for economic activity," and urging the committee to approve the measure.
The same committee received similar bills in three prior legislative sessions dating to 2019; the measures failed to advance each time. Collins encouraged members to submit testimony to the committee in support of the latest bill via email.
While the recent history of Hogan's bills seeking to exempt the 11 private-public airports in the state from property taxes has frustrated advocates, the state has recognized the value of, and invested in, Minute Man Air Field—as recently as 2017, when Hogan and other state officials joined the owner in celebrating a $1.062 million third phase of a runway paving and obstacle removal project, of which the state paid 80 percent. As Collins noted in his May 9 letter, private-public airports are generally not eligible for federal airport improvement grants, though they account for nearly a third of the state's 37 public-use airports.
