Your assumption that these services have already been paid for is incorrect. The government estimates how much the services will be used and sets its fees for the service. If the government was providing these services for free, other taxes would have to be raised to replace the fees. And the general public usually supports the idea of the people using the service paying a fee for the service, just as would happen in a private business.
No, but a government official has some leeway in how they interpret the rules. So if the rule says a notarization costs fifty dollars, the official can decide whether an eight page packet is one notarization repeated eight times or eight separate notarizations.
Just some ideas, not my opinion, but I think some people might want to know exactly how much that paper costs and if it could bought cheaper, how the fees are split by government and why should people be charged for items the government is required to have in possession(they’re required to keep birth certificate records and should budget for it)?
L.A. to consider shifting responsibility for sidewalks to landowners
Repairs Begin on Buckled Sidewalk in South LA
“By using a private contractor instead of city crews, [City Councilman Benard] l Parks said he’s able to repair more sidewalks in his district for less money.”
First, as has been said above, user fees keep taxes lower than they would be without fees. Second, saying people are “charged for items the government is required to have in possession” is not really accurate. I know of nowhere that charges a fee for filing a birth certificate or death certificate ( which is the information the government is required to maintain). People are charged for a copy of that record, in exactly the same way a college charges for copies of transcripts or a hospital charges for copies of your medical records or court reporters charge individuals for a *copy *of a transcript. Taxes, tuition, and medical bills pay to maintain the records- user fees pay for them to be copied. And the fact that fees exist probably keeps the number of copies made way down- I might get a college transcript every semester if there was no fee, or a copy of my medical record after every appointment, or not bother looking for my birth certificate when I need it.
If your friend is truly concerned about this, he could write to an elected official for whatever level of government this is - city, county, state - and ask to have an explaination of the budget for that public records office. That would be easy to provide.
I can almost guarantee you that the budget will show that the office requires $2 million (or whatever) to pay salaries, stock supplies, keep the lights on, etc., of which so much is provided by an appropriation from the government, and the remainder is provided through fees. How that specifically breaks out for this particular office I have no idea of course, but this is very easy information to come by.
The government is gonna get theirs. Whether it be by taxes, fees, etc.
This is why there is very little motivation by the government to reign themselves in. And why government has massively grown in size over the last several decades.
UPDATE: I received this message tonight from the US Embassy:
**The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok and the U.S. Consulate General in Chiang Mai inform U.S. citizens that
· After December 31, 2015, the Department of State will no longer add extra visa pages to U.S. passports.
· U.S. citizens applying for passports outside of the United States will receive 52-page passport books. The 52-page passport book will cost the same as 28-page passport book would.
· Renew your passport early to make sure you have enough blank pages for visa stamps from other countries. Some countries require two blank pages for their entry and exit stamps.**
Although, when you apply for the passport, you can request one with twice as many pages for the same cost.
Seems silly to do otherwise.
I think a blend of taxes and fees is actually a good way to handle most government services. The tax is there because the government is often providing for a more general public good. The fee is there to make sure that it’s only people who actually want the service enough get it done.
Bridge tolls are a great example. There’s a public good that’s served by infrastructure like a bridge. Everyone benefits when transportation networks are efficient. But there’s also a benefit that’s concentrated on the people who regularly use the bridge. A mix of tax and fees means that everyone pays a little (and receives a small benefit), and the people who receive the biggest benefit pay more.
There are also cases (emergency services come to mind) where I don’t think fees are appropriate.
Yes - and a significant part of the reason is that it benefits pretty much everyone - by no means just those who own cars. Those non-owners presumably consume goods delivered by truck, ride in cars & buses, are carried in ambulances when sick, etc.
“I summarily fine you $350 for what I consider rudeness - and offer you no chance to contest this” is clearly an abuse, for which the official should probably be fired. There’s close to zero chance that an employee of a private company would still be employed after such a performance.
This could easily be solved by providing only one free copy per year, or 5 years etc.
And how many people would do this in the first place?
Nonsense. Private companies have the right to refuse customers who are behaving rudely.
Employees of governments agencies have to serve everyone and they will do so. But anyone who walks in with an “I pay your salary so you’d better grovel” attitude will get the full bureaucrat treatment.
I take it you’ve never worked with the public.
Indeed. My contention is that employees of those companies are rarely authorized to impose arbitrary additional charges in cases where they perceive a customer’s question as rude.
There’s no evidence that the case in question involved this attitude. And I question the validity of a $350 surcharge even in a case that did.
I’ve always done so ever since the option was offered, but the option has not always been offered. The period where I loaded up on extra pages twice, I don’t remember if they had started offering the double size yet, but if they did, then I had it and still had to get extra pages. I traveled a lot at the time.
Now of course, as per the new announcement, there is no choice. A passport issued to me abroad will now automatically be the larger size.
Thank you for dialing 9-1-1. To be connected to an emergency operator please enter your sixteen digit credit card number followed by the # key.
Yeah. Doesn’t work.
But I have no problem with a pay for additional service for non-emergency situations. Some police departments start charging a fee for multiple responses to a false burglar alarm. Typically an escalating fee is charged after the first two or three responses in a year. The fee is not so much about raising funds but rather to encourage owners to maintain their alarm systems.
This makes all sorts of sense - provided it’s announced in advance and not made up on the spot.