Opinion: Ted Cruz Got Aviation Safety Right. Congress Shouldn’t Turn ADS-B Into a Tax Shelter

After the tragic January 2025 midair collision near Reagan National Airport that killed 67 people, Cruz helped lead the bipartisan Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform Act, or ROTOR Act. The Senate passed it unanimously. Among other reforms, the bill expands the use of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B, technology designed to help aircraft see one another and prevent another catastrophe.

But there is another reason Texans should pay attention to what happens next. 

The House passed a different aviation bill, the ALERT Act. Buried among its safety provisions is Section 105, which would prohibit the use of ADS-B data to identify an aircraft for the purpose of obtaining revenue from its owner or operator without that owner’s prior consent. The Senate-passed ROTOR Act contains no comparable restriction. 

That distinction could have enormous consequences for Texas taxpayers.

According to The Center Square, if the U.S. Senate approves the ADS-B amendment, Texas alone could lose as much as $70.2 million in annual tax revenue. That money supports the same local services funded by everyone else’s property taxes, with public schools representing the largest single category of property-tax levies in Texas.

This comes at a time when multiple counties across the state of Texas are pursuing millions from delinquent aircraft owners. Travis County recently gave Texans a striking example. In July, Tax Assessor-Collector Celia Israel announced that just 20 aircraft owners owed the county nearly $2 million in delinquent property taxes after failing to respond to collection efforts. At a time when local governments and schools face difficult budget decisions, ordinary Texans should not be expected to shoulder a greater burden because owners of valuable aircraft fail to pay taxes they legally owe.

ADS-B data can help tax authorities determine where aircraft are based and operated. Section 105 could restrict their ability to use that information to identify aircraft for legitimate tax collection.

The principle is straightforward. A homeowner cannot hide a house from the appraisal district. A business cannot ordinarily move its office across a county line every evening and pretend it does not exist. Aircraft owners should not receive a practical advantage simply because their property happens to fly and isn’t rooted in the ground.

And the stakes extend beyond the owners themselves. Every dollar of taxable property that disappears from the rolls shifts the burden somewhere else — onto homeowners, small businesses and other taxpayers who cannot make their property vanish into the air. Texas property taxes finance schools, cities, counties and other local services. Ensuring that everyone pays what the law requires is not an expansion of government. It is basic tax fairness. This is where Sen. Cruz’s ROTOR Act gets it right.

Whatever the competing interests surrounding the House legislation, Cruz and his Senate colleagues produced an aviation safety bill without Section 105’s revenue restriction. They focused on preventing another aviation tragedy without creating a new federal obstacle to legitimate state and local tax enforcement.

As the House and Senate work through their competing approaches, Cruz should hold that line.

Texas does not need Washington creating a special blind spot for aircraft owners. We need safer skies, fair enforcement and a property-tax system in which the rules apply whether your property sits on the ground or flies at 40,000 feet.

Sen. Cruz deserves credit for advancing the cleaner approach. Congress should follow his lead and keep Section 105 out of the final aviation safety bill.