You have to love the innovative way that government goes about finding and collecting additional monies from the citizens. It is always interesting to pay close attention to the amount of money you actually pay to the various levels of government.
The State Legislature is currently looking at the many fees they charge. What is a fee?
Think about your car registration renewal. If you don’t renew it, you’ll get a ticket. Have you noticed that it goes up significantly every two years? Yes it does.
The City of Houston recently raised a long list of fees for all sorts of things. Mostly, it was fees for business. For example, a valet parking license used to cost $500 annually and now it will cost $1500 annually. Burglar alarm permits went up as well as many others.
Originally, fees were considered “dedicated” funds. For example, your fee to enter a State Park would be used to sustain and support state parks. When we create and require licensing for a new field, i.e. Yoga Instructors, the required fee should cover the cost of administering the new licensing division.
This all makes rational sense. I don’t mind paying my car registration and inspection sticker fees as long as those dollars are going to support better roads.
Over time, those governing realized that these fees are a good place to identify new review and citizens don’t really notice until they need something or use it. And, they can say that they did NOT “raise your taxes.” Technically, they didn’t.
Of course, you might not notice that your massage just increased by $10 because your massage therapist is now required to be licensed by the state.
I call these fees “hidden taxes”. Again, it’s hard to be outraged constantly about them because you just don’t notice. You receive that annual car renewal thing and you think, “wow, when did it start costing $70 annually to renew this?” But, you pay it, take care of the paperwork and go on without much thought.
Who doesn’t like that kind of revenue creation? I encourage you to track the fees you pay for a year. Then, as you travel about, think about the fees that restaurants, gas stations, licensed professionals and others are paying that pass through to you in increased costs.
Hey, the Texas Legislature is in Session. Better hang on to your pocketbook!
I think the intent is that many (most?) of the fees cover what it costs the government to license, process, monitor, etc. the things involved. I don’t think there is “extra” revenue coming from the state’s department that handles all the vehicle licensing, registration, reporting. When it raised fees, for example, the City cited many department heads who said “it costs more to administer this than we collect in fees.” The idea is that only the people who use a government entity, service, registration should pay. The argument is that people without cars shouldn’t pay general taxes to support that department. People who don’t eat much in restaurants shouldn’t be taxed to cover the cost of restaurant inspections — just have a restaurant license fee, and then the people who eat out will pay that.
Obviously, a fee totally out of proportion to the “service” the government provides is a “hidden tax.” But if the fee is in line with the service, then I view it as better — the citizens who benefit pay the fee/tax and the people who do not have cars, eat out, get massages, or valet park do not have to pay. If it works like it should, I PREFER fees.
Now, I don’t know about $1,500 to regulate valet parkers. Seems high, so maybe it is a “hidden tax.” But (1) I don’t know you are right about that fee, or maybe that only covers companies with 100+ valets or something and (2) I don’t know what the City department head would say about his/her budget, how much time they spend dealing with citizen complaints about valets, fining companies for damaging cars, etc.