User Fees

Though the Los Angeles Unified School District reduced the fee it proposes to charge groups wishing to use its facilities, dozens of youth athletic representatives cried foul at a district meeting Wednesday and reiterated that fees of any sort will result in the elimination of their athletic programs. More than 100 representatives of groups or teams that stand to be affected by the user-fee proposal decried the plan, even though a costly custodial fee for nonprofit groups was eliminated.

In a sharp setback for cities and counties, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday that the state government need not pay for programs it imposes on local communities that can be funded by local user fees. The justices unanimously upheld a state statute that is being used with increasing frequency by the state during lean budgetary times to finance scores of state-required local programs involving millions of dollars.

Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner said Thursday that a "user fee" on gasoline should not be considered a tax and added that such fees could be increased to generate additional revenues for highway programs. Skinner's comments, made during an interview with Times reporters and editors, appeared aimed at circumventing President Bush's oft-repeated pledge of "no new taxes."

To keep pace with Orange County's booming population, the County Fire Department hopes to start charging for services ranging from reviving residents from death's door to responding to false alarms. The proposed "user fees" would raise an additional $4.2 million a year, according to a just-finished department report. The fees are expected to help county firefighters grapple with the increasing number of residents they serve, which has soared from 390,000 to 800,000 over the last decade.

It was meant to be a simple program with a laudable goal when it was launched six months ago--people would pay to play in Los Padres and the three other national forests in Southern California. With 10 million hikers, bikers, anglers and swimmers descending upon Los Padres alone annually, it was thought the user fees--priced at $5 daily or $30 annually per carload--would enable the budget-squeezed U.S. Forest Service to fix vandalized campgrounds and washed-out trails.

As the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board prepares to vote on a $3.4-billion budget, it should move to correct the past failures of the region's transportation policies. The past was marked by heavy spending on highway construction and costly rail systems. Yet freeways remain congested, and the outlook for improvement is bleak. The region would be better served if we turned from expanding rail systems and lane-building toward a freeway user-fee program. It would solve two problems.

County officials conceded Tuesday that they have met with little success in persuading businesses to support an "Adopt-a-Trail" program to maintain county parks, and indicated that a controversial fee for trail use by hikers, bikers and equestrians is likely. Los Angeles County supervisors said they hope to make a final decision Tuesday on whether to institute the program or enforce a recently enacted $23 annual fee for park users.

Los Angeles County's park and recreation system has long been a jewel in the firmament of county government. Carefully acquired since the end of World War II, the 68,000 acres of hiking and riding trails, golf courses, gardens, lakes, pools, tennis courts and other open spaces have proved a haven for nearly every segment of Los Angeles County's diverse population.

To the dismay of university officials, a developer hoping to build a sports and recreation complex at Cal State Northridge disclosed Tuesday that his $50-million plan may not even include a new football stadium, which CSUN has considered a priority. Woodland Hills businessman Mark Steele also admitted that the university would have to pay a $3.

It has been two years since motorists were first asked to pay for something that was once free: day use of the massive national forests around Los Angeles. U.S. Forest Service personnel, recognizing the controversy surrounding the $30-per-year Adventure Pass and the $5 day pass, have seldom imposed the $100 fine for those who fail to display it. But that may change soon.