A National team tax? What else can we do to discourage
competition?

The
CWG/LMR proposal proposes a National team tax placed on every competitor at
the Nationals and at the "national-level" competitions. It would be $10/entrant
for the "national-level" meets and $30/entrant at the nationals. Somehow this is
part of the already high sanctioning fees, but it is very unclear how this is
supposed to be collected (before or after the meet, for example).

If our goal is to have more competitions and more attendance, why are we
discouraging attendance by taxing it? Isn't the complaint that the meets already
cost too much, and that pilots want to go to competitions like the King meet
which are less costly? Why are LMR trying to drive away the very pilots that
they want to attend the competitions?

The National teams are free to raise money for their expenses. The USHPA
contributes ZERO dollars to the US National team. Why should the USHPA collect a
tax for a team that it doesn't even support?

Won't putting on a tax hurt the fund raising efforts of the National team? Right
now pilots have the possibility of helping fund the team voluntarily through
contributions to the Foundation for Free Flight (which goes to pay their entry
fees at the Worlds, only). And they can participate in voluntary fund raising
efforts by the team. Why undercut those efforts by instituting a tax?