An op-ed in the Orange County Register offers five reasons why transportation infrastructure should be paid for out of user fees, not taxes. A similar case can be made for other kinds of infrastructure as well.
Unfortunately, it has become easier to ask the federal government to pay for everything out of funny money (deficit spending) than to charge people user fees. Case in point: Oregon water infrastructure, which a recent study found has billions of dollars of maintenance backlog.
Years ago, some fiscal conservatives put a measure on Oregon’s statewide ballot to require local governments to get voter approval for any increases in taxes or user fees. I told them that they should limit this to tax increases only, but they said they didn’t trust the government to not hide tax increases in user fee increases. Most water departments in Oregon are government owned, and since that ballot measure many cities have been unable to finance major rehabilitation programs because voters haven’t approved them. Continue reading
