The right attitude

There is a lot more to government revenues than just taxes.

There are those ubiquitous fees.

Raising taxes takes some doing. Raising fees is a simple matter.

In Washington state, raising fees has become almost an art.

Most state departments and agencies raise fees without much difficulty and without much protest.

State Senator Mark Schoesler wants to make the fees and the changes in fees more transparent.

He authored SB 5751. It recently passed in the senate.

Schoesler’s bill would require state agencies to publish all fees and make them accessible to the public at one site online. Additionally, increases in fees would be posted for the past five years, as well as who is collecting the fee, the legal authority for the fee and the purpose of the fee.

Reportedly, this is something state agencies voluntarily started, but Schoesler’s bill would make it mandatory and an official duty of the Office of Financial Management.

More important, this “fee inventory” bill, if passed into law, flies in the face of current thinking that the public’s right to know can be constrained if it causes public agencies inconvenience or difficulties.

It is a start, if not in legislation, then in attitude.

Gordon Forgey

Publisher