ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 4, 1996 TAG: 9610040011
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
IF THE ERA OF big government is over, as both Republicans and a Democratic president have proclaimed, why does government keep expanding?
In large part, says the president of the International City/County Management Association, because political rhetoric about government waste, inefficiency and even corruption misses the point. The key problem, writes Norman R. King in the September issue of Governing magazine, is one that politicians seldom mention: Too many people are paying too little directly for the services they use.
King was recently appointed by Republican Gov. Pete Wilson of California to that state's Commission on Transportation Investment, and he focuses on the point as it relates to the costs of auto use.
Over the past 25 years, he says, road-related user charges have declined as a percentage of revenue to pay for the costs of road use: construction, congestion, environmental pollution and so on. The difference must be made up from indirect, general taxation unrelated to how much the specific taxpayer is contributing to those costs.
One obvious answer is to raise the gas tax, but there are a number of other tools as well. Among those listed by King are more toll roads, congestion pricing, mileage- and smog-based registration fees and mileage-based insurance premiums.
Nor are the opportunities to impose more user-related fees or taxes limited to transportation. Solid-waste disposal, law enforcement (financial penalties for false alarms, for example), pollution control and public recreation are among other areas of government where the idea could be applied.
In general, taxation is properly shared and spread across the society. Everyone, for example, has an interest in high-quality public education. Even so, substituting user fees for general taxation is clearly fair in some instances. It might even make people look more kindly on government.
But why would it limit the growth of government? Because, King says, it substitutes "demand management" for "supply management." Traditional government focuses on responding to increased demand with increased services - more roads, for example.
Shifting more of the costs of government from general taxation to user fees offer one market-oriented way to limit demand for public services. Not only would that help curtail government's growth, but it would also, as King notes, free up general tax revenues for general services like public education.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB