User Fees

Financially strapped California cities are staying solvent these days by charging businesses a bundle of new fees for the cost of everything from traffic lights to day care. Does the burglar alarm in your office routinely go off by accident? That could cost you a special fee to cover the Police Department's cost for checking it. Planning a sprawling new commercial complex? Better count on a hefty fee to pay the city's cost of providing a pleasant park next to it.

SACRAMENTO — Let's begin with the basics: Tobacco companies are inherently evil. They peddle poison that causes cancer and addicts people to their killer products. Second, smoking is nuts. Smokers know that. Spare the lectures. Can't stop, they say. Nonsense. Millions have. They'll stop eventually when the nurse thrusts the ventilator tube down their throat. I've been blessed. Never smoked. But for much of my generation, lighting up was a rite of passage.

If you're like most cellphone users, you probably think you're paying less than 10 cents per minute for calls. Think again. When you do the math, you find the average cellphone customer actually pays more than $3 per minute, according to a report being issued this week by the Utility Consumers' Action Network, a San Diego consumer advocacy group. I got a sneak peek at the report the other day. Researchers arrived at the average $3.

How do I, a card-carrying liberal ? if only liberals had it sufficiently together to issue cards ? think my way through this year's crop of California ballot measures? Thusly: Of the measures on November's ballot, three are genuine game-changers. Proposition 25 would reduce from two-thirds to a simple majority the number of votes required in each house of the Legislature to pass a budget. Proposition 26 would raise the threshold to enact regulatory and user fees from a majority vote to two-thirds.

National park concessionaires, accused of earning excessive profits at the government's expense, have blocked release of a government audit to prevent their finances from being made public, a congressional committee said Thursday. The audit, a detailed appraisal of problems outlined in an Interior Department task force report released in April, was conducted by the agency's inspector general and contains specific profit figures for businesses that operate concessions in national parks.

Like almost everything else, the cost of attending Los Angeles County museums or parking at a state or county beach is going up. Effective April 1, the Board of Supervisors has decided, it will cost most adults $3 rather than $1.50 to visit the County Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History, the Page Museum at La Brea Tar Pits, the county Arboretum and the Botanic Gardens. Parking at county beaches (and at state beaches operated by Los Angeles County) will go from $3 to $4 a day.

There is no doubt that the research and development of military technologies, such as the atmospheric atomic testing program at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s, posed a greater risk of technological catastrophe than do most of the society's civilian risky technologies. Furthermore, America's governmental leaders, from the scientists and technicians at Los Alamos to Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, believed they had a fundamental obligation to continue the development of state-of-the-art military technology--no matter how risky the technology was to persons and the ecosystem.

As a member of a number of small organizations which are "users" of Los Angeles County parks and gardens, I wish to protest a recent directive by the director of these facilities. After more than 15 years of participation in garden shows, bonsai exhibitions and group meetings, I have become a witness to a major decline in attendance to our affairs. Where a weeklong show would attract several thousand Los Angeles residents, we now see a major reduction in attendance due to the $3 entry fee. Now, the facility management has seen fit to enact another "user" charge of $50 and $25 to organizations which use these public garden buildings for their meetings and shows.

President Clinton's budget proposes raising $1 billion a year from a new levy on broadcasters and other users of the nation's airwaves--but the television industry appears confident it can defeat any such measure. The proposal would require that Congress pass legislation to give the Federal Communications Commission the authority to charge user fees for licenses that the agency now allocates to private companies for little or no cost.

A number of recent letters condemn various fees for using public facilities, ranging from parking fees at Ventura Harbor to fees for entering national forests. I readily understand anger over fees for services that were, until recently, free. However, these fees are a natural consequence of voting for politicians and ballot propositions that cut our taxes. With reduced revenues for maintaining parking lots, hiking trails and other government facilities, fees are needed to cover the shortfall.

Zeal has replaced science and common sense at the Food and Drug Administration. Last year, the FDA attempted to block importation of "electronic cigarettes" -- an important aid to cessation of smoking -- but was enjoined from doing so by the federal courts. It also reversed a sound policy that required prior legal review of warning letters sent to companies, and it has increased the amounts of data that will need to be obtained and submitted to regulators for medical devices -- including pacemakers, artificial joints and cardiac stents -- to an extent that threatens innovation in the industry.

The Food and Drug Administration was sitting pretty last week, winning a significant budget increase while many other federal agencies faced the prospect of cut or frozen funding as the Obama administration confronts a 13-figure deficit. But a coalition of public interest advocates, patient groups and healthcare industry interests regulated by the FDA had a swift response: It's not enough. "We are disappointed in the president's budget request and . . . will seek to increase" the budget, said Steven Grossman, deputy executive director of Alliance for a Stronger FDA. The group lists seven former FDA commissioners and many of the largest and most influential consumer, food and pharmaceutical trade groups among its 180 members.

In a move that will be watched carefully by newspapers struggling to find a viable financial model in the digital age, entertainment industry publication Variety today will begin charging readers for access to the news and information on its website. The return to erecting a "pay wall," though anticipated, nonetheless could be risky because several online competitors -- including the Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, the Wrap and the Los Angeles Times -- offer similar content without charge, potentially undermining Variety's ability to get subscribers to pay. Although it's one of the first publications to make the move to cut off unpaid access to its site, many others are examining the issue as advertising migrates from print to the Internet.

A popular golf course at the VA Medical Center in Brentwood has been closed to the public as federal investigators look into suspected embezzlement of greens fees there. The nine-hole, par-3 course -- built for returning World War II veterans by members of the Hillcrest Country Club -- has been open in recent years to others who pay $12 per round to play. But as much as $200,000 in user fees may be missing, according to some who are familiar with the course's operation.

The Web is a great place to freeload. But that could be changing. In the latest example of fees being introduced for a service that once came with no strings attached, Eastman Kodak Co. says it'll begin charging $4.99 to $19.99 annually for its previously free online photo-storage service, Kodak Gallery. If you don't pay by May 16, the company warns, all your photos could be deleted.

Netflix flexed its muscle Monday, saying it would raise prices about 20% for subscribers who rent Blu-ray movie discs. The movie service said the higher rates would allow it to stock more copies of the high-definition discs to keep pace with demand. The rate change, which takes effect April 27, will add $4 to the $17 monthly fee paid by subscribers who rent three movies at a time. Customers who rent standard DVDs will not be affected.

The Bush Administration plans to propose excise taxes on recreational vehicles, off-road vehicles, camping equipment and pleasure boats despite the concern of some Administration officials that they might be a violation of President Bush's "no new taxes" pledge. The taxes, ranging from 1% to 2.

Every now and then a "gut" or "pocketbook" issue comes along to demonstrate that even the White House will attempt to do something that really rankles some of its strongest organized supporters. That's what is happening now on Capitol Hill, where a Reagan-backed proposal to increase housing finance "user" fees has enraged groups that speak for housing/finance/realty interests.

If you're like most cellphone users, you probably think you're paying less than 10 cents per minute for calls. Think again. When you do the math, you find the average cellphone customer actually pays more than $3 per minute, according to a report being issued this week by the Utility Consumers' Action Network, a San Diego consumer advocacy group. I got a sneak peek at the report the other day. Researchers arrived at the average $3.

A noisy fight over user fees has erupted on Idaho's scenic lakes and world-famous river rapids. It pits white-water river rafters, kayakers and canoeists against powerboaters. At issue is who pays for services such as docks, launching pads, parking lots, restrooms and search-and-rescue efforts. Motorboaters pay registration fees and gas taxes; others don't. Powerboaters complained to state officials that others were not paying their fair share of user fees.