THE COMING TAX, FINE AND FEE BASED ECONOMY by Jonas Clark

With States struggling to find cash to finance their out of control spending we can expect them to seek creative ways to tax, fine and fee their citizens. Here are some examples of unique ways our wise leaders are getting more money from its citizens:

OBESITY TAX 18% ON DIET DRINKS
Albany, New York Gov. David Paterson’s has proposed an obesity tax on non-diet soda to raise an additional $404 million.

SMELLING FARM ANIMALS FEE
Montgomery, Alabama is proposing an annual fee on farmers that own smelly cows and pigs. It would require farms or ranches with more than “25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog.”

PLASTIC TRASH BAG FEES
New York City, New York
The New York City Sanitation Department to pull in $16 million through a 5-cent fee on plastic trash bags.

HIRE MORE TRAFFIC COPS
Serve and protect is about to be changed to stop and ticket. New York City will hire 234 more traffic cops to raise an estimated $60 million in traffic tickets.

STATE SALES TAX HIKES
New York is offering “a combination of a higher general sales tax, restoration of the sales tax on clothing and an increase in the personal income tax of 7.5 percent or 15 percent.”

INTERSTATE TRAFFIC LANE USAGE FEE
Fort Lauderdale, Florida will designate the north bound lane of Interstate I-95 weekdays as fee required. The usage fee will be regulated according to traffic congestion. On Friday mornings the fee could be as high as $6.20 one way. That’s over $300.00 annually per user. They say the fee is needed to ease traffic congestion. Some citizens don’t believe that for a minute. The question remains, “How does restricting lane access remove traffic congestion?” Most think this is a ruse to generate more fee based (usage) revenue.

NEW AND HIGHER FUEL TAXES
Rhode Island gets inventive and plans to raise $300 million by charging a per mile fee. Hope you live near your workplace if not get ready to open your wallets.

INCREASE GASOLINE TAX
Now 30 cents plans are to increase them up to 15 cents per gallon by 2016 which would raise an estimated $64 million per year.

PETROLEUM PRODUCTS USAGE FEES
A new “petroleum products gross earning tax,” beginning with the equivalent of 10 cents per gallon of gasoline in 2010 and adding another 5 cents in 2014. That would affect all petroleum products from gasoline and aviation fuel to those made from petroleum derivatives such as plastics, paint and fertilizer. It would eventually raise about $66 million per year, the draft report says.

CAR REGISTRATION FEES

Now at $60 for two years would rise $40 per year immediately and could more than double to $140 by 2013 depending on which version was used, raising up to $46 million per year.

A NEW MILEAGE FEE
Rhode Island would impose a half-cent-per-mile fee raising an estimated $50 million per year. At a half-cent per mile, driving 10,000 miles per year would cost $50 per vehicle. One cent would cost $100.

http://www.projo.com/news/content/blue_ribbon_05_12-05-08_S0CHBG2_v20.3f0727b.html

NOT RECYCLING FEE
Gwinnett County, Georgia: residents could face $500 fine for not recycling.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/12/04/gwinnett_recycling_fine.html

WASTING FOOD SURCHARGE OF 3%
New York City. Here is a unique strategy cities could take a look at. A New York Japanese restaurant is charging a 3 % charge to those that don’t finish their dinner.

http://wcbstv.com/seenon/food.waste.charge.2.882636.html

Have you come across any new interesting fines, fees or taxes in your city, county or State? Post them here and we will update our list. Be sure to cite your source.