USER FEES: PROS AND CONS

User fees are charges levied against individual consumers of publicly produced services and commodities and publicly granted privileges on a cost‐per‐unit basis. In the broadest definition, user fees include charges for specialized database searches performed by public libraries, for electricity produced by a city‐owned utility, and for liquor licenses. In each of these cases, an individual can avoid the charge by consuming zero amount of the service, commodity, or privilege. By comparison, an individual cannot avoid the general taxes assessed for support of the library or other government services even if his or her direct consumption of a given service is zero.