SPIN METER: Romney used fees to close budget gap

Associated Press /WTOP.com ^ | 5/2/2012, 5:40am ET | ANDREW MIGA

[SoConPubbie]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitt Romney's boast that he closed a $3 billion budget gap as Massachusetts governor without raising taxes is a cornerstone of his White House campaign, a way to highlight his pitch for lower taxes and leaner government in a race where federal budget deficits and the slumping economy are hot issues.

What he rarely mentions is how he did it. The presumptive Republican nominee and Democratic state lawmakers raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cash-strapped state coffers by approving new and higher fees on everything from marriage licenses to real estate transactions to gun licenses.
. . . . .
Romney and the Democratic-run Legislature raised about $350 million annually in additional fees during Romney's first two fiscal years as governor, said Widmer. Romney has said the fee increases were about $240 million in fiscal 2004.

A National Conference of State Legislatures study put the figure even higher, saying Massachusetts in 2003 imposed more than $501.5 million in fee hikes, more than any other state. New York, with a far larger budget, was a distant second with $367 million.

Among the fee increases the study found: Marriage licenses went from $4 to $50, driving permits from $15 to $30, deed-recording fees from $25 to $100 and mortgage-recording fees from $36 to $158.

Romney wanted to make blind people pay a new $10 fee for a state certificate of blindness and $15 for a photo identification card, but the Legislature scrapped those proposals.
. . . . '

[SoConPubbie]

And the Un-Masking of Mitt Romney, the lying, left-wing, Progressive Liberal, continues . . . "If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

[HiTech RedNeck]

A blindness license!

Mitt, Mitt, Mitt. Tone deaf Mitt.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Fees = user pay
Taxes = other people pay

User fees are fiscally conservative — they are usually attacked from the left.

[RitaOK]

I hear Romney “saved the Olympics”. He supplied the cascade of cash needed......from the US Congress!

taxpayer money = other people’s money

What a guy, that Romney.

[SoConPubbie]

Fees = user pay
Taxes = other people pay

User fees are fiscally conservative — they are usually attacked from the left.

Over $700 million in user fees is not conservative, it's a dodge so that Mitt Romney can say he didn't raise taxes.

It's just another form of taxation because Romney wasn't man enough to actually cut government down to size.

Just another lie about Mitt Romney's record exposed.

[wastedyears]

This is probably one reason why JimRob and all the Mods zotted so many Romney supporters.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Hey, count on Mitt, he’ll wangle anything for ya.

[HiTech RedNeck]

You’d have to know if these fees were really so large they were subsidies.

[dfwgator]

Over $700 million in user fees is not conservative, it's a dodge so that Mitt Romney can say he didn't raise taxes.

"If it walks like a duck..."

[dfwgator]

The bottom line is he didn’t close the gap by cutting spending.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

“Over $700 million in user fees is not conservative, it’s a dodge ....”

Good point! Clearly, I need to add a proviso to my first comments. User fees are more fiscally conservative than taxes; provided that they are used to substitute for taxes, not add to them.

When imposed with honest intentions, user fees can bring a modicum of market discipline to government services.

[Diogenesis]

Loser Romney (Obama’s secret weapon) uses “fees”
as taxes.

That said, Romney has no chance. Zero. Zed. Nada.

[TurboZamboni]

When you’re driving down the highway at night
And you’re feelin’ that wild turkey’s bite
Don’t give johnny walker a ride
Cause jack black is right by your side
You might get taken to the jailhouse and find
You’ve been arrested for driving while blind

[TurboZamboni]

In theory, fees are better than taxes, but it seems Statists just make it a requirement to have a “permit”, “fee” or “license” to do anything and EVERYTHING.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Good point. If the only “service” you’re getting in return for your user fees is permission to do something, then you aren’t getting anything from government that you wouldn’t have gotten if government had simply stayed out of the way.

Check my new tag line.

[familyop]

If you love freedom, stop engaging in activities that require fees. Become more self-sufficient.

[SoConPubbie]

If you love freedom, stop engaging in activities that require fees. Become more self-sufficient.

That would work if Romney wasn't using fees for everything to avoid having to use the dreaded word Tax.

But Romney, as usual, being the slimy, cowardly, deceitful, snake he has always been, tried to hide the taxes as fees and applied them to necessary functions of both Government and the human, every day experience.

[familyop]

"But Romney, as usual, being the slimy, cowardly, deceitful, snake he has always been, tried to hide the taxes as fees and applied them to necessary functions of both Government and the human, every day experience."

There are already fewer vehicles, nearly no houses being built, no one getting married and less of many other fee-generating activities in my area, along with abandonments of properties and many other trends that reduce revenues. And this is rich NIMBYville central: one of the favorite roosts of the real parasites away from their homes--those bipartisan folks who allow no competition and do truly consume most of the debt from this regime. They are the most influential people in politics.

Meanwhile, conservatives, yes, conservatives, are helping to push the bureaucratic robbers--the real "1%"--to rob and spend on fascist government support like there's no tomorrow. I even see HOAs in debt (yes, mortgaged properties) and powerless due to the wonderful tactic.

The bond collapse is coming, and there's nowhere to hide. Have fun. Enjoy the slide.

Oh, and on Romney, no vote! Who is Romney anyway? Duncan Hunter for President.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I believe that user fees should be considered neutral up until the point where the fee matches the cost of providing the service (btw, for a lot things government does, the fees don’t cover the cost, like the “entry fees” for a state park usually aren’t nearly enough to cover the cost of running the park).

Other “user fees” are just taxes by another name, especially when the government has no real involvement other than collecting the taxes.

Most are somewhere in the middle, like an “enhanced 911 fee” for example; it doesn’t cover specific users, so it’s not really a fee”, but it also doesn’t cover the full cost of providing the 911 services, so it’s not really a “tax” — more like an insurance policy.

User fees for truly luxury things like visiting national parks are the least onerous of the ways government can raise funds, because they are voluntary (you can choose not to go to a park, and therefore not have to pay), and the costs of a service tend to be carried more by those who benefit from the service.

User fees for things like “licenses” are generally the worst, because you need the various licenses and the cost is much higher than the incremental cost of providing a license. And usually government has no real business forcing people to get licenses to begin with, so they essentially assert a burden against you, and then make you pay for it.

Give me spending cuts. But if there must be some money collected, give me a user fee over an income tax increase.

[Domangart]

This person that you posted to is a democRAT.