User fee and tax not the same
AS A NUMBER OF
supervisors and several of their constituents said at the last County Board meeting, a user fee is nothing more than a tax by another name.
They’re right — but they’re also wrong.
The board wrestled long and hard with several user fee issues at their meeting, primarily over instituting a user fee for county-owned recreational facilities and doubling the fee for registering septic systems with the county. By the end of the marathon meeting, county Planning and Resources Director Jim Hulbert must have felt like he was sitting on the hot seat, since both of those proposals came out of his department. Both measures passed by the margin of just a handful of votes or less.
Those directly affected by the fee proposals, whether rural property owners or recreational users, were understandably opposed to the idea, repeating the common refrain that a user fee is just another name for a tax.
Interestingly, several other fee increases passed with just a handful of votes in opposition. Among those were fees paid by work-release jail prisoners and the coroner’s cremation fee. Apparently, prisoners and the dead don’t have nearly the same vehement supporters on the County Board and in the public as recreational users and septic system owners.
The revenue from the recreation user fee will be segregated and used entirely for maintenance and upkeep of those facilities. The increase in the septic registration fee does not even entirely cover the county’s cost of keeping those records, which are used to ensure that failing or failed systems are corrected in a timely manner.
As to the common theme in the arguments over the fees, it is true that user fees and taxes are both money paid to a government by its constituents. But the similarity ends there.
Taxes are generally something that is paid by everyone — or at least nearly everyone — under a unit of government. Whether it’s a property tax, a sales tax, an income tax, a gasoline tax or some other form of tax, most if not all of us pay them either directly or indirectly.
A user fee, on the other hand, is only paid by the person who uses the particular service or facility it covers. For instance, the many thousands of county residents who do not put a boat in the water at any of the county’s boat landings or bike the Old Plank Road or Interurban trails will never pay a penny for that user fee.
Similarly, those who do not have a septic system — which is the majority of county residents — will not have to pay the registration fee, as they have no need of the service it covers.
In both cases, the property taxes of the majority of county residents will not be raised to pay for services or facilities the majority of county residents do not use. For them, the user fee will not be a tax. It’s as simple as that.
At issue: Something or other Bottom line: Do something about it
