Since the era of tax limitation began in the late 1970s, the state, cities, counties, schools, and other government agencies have increasingly utilized fees as a funding source. The graphs on this page show that fees and assessments have grown faster than any other major stream of revenue and are now, as a group, larger than the property tax, sales tax, income tax, or any other revenue source.

State and Local Revenues, 1993-94   Revenue Type  Amount (Billions)  Property Tax $20.7  Sales Tax   20.8  Personal Income Tax   17.5  Corporate Income Tax   4.6  Other Taxes  12.0  Fees and Assessments   23.1  Other Revenues   11.8  Total Own-Source General Revenues  $110.5

This shift to fee-based funding is not surprising since fee increases face fewer obstacles than tax increases. While tax increases often require voter approval or super-majority, high-profile legislative votes, fee increases are usually passed with a simple-majority vote of a governing council. In many cases, fee increases are approved by regulatory agencies that are not in the public spotlight.

These figures are based on U.S. Census Bureau reports that Cal-Tax uses for interstate tax burden comparisons. The data are several years old because of a backlog at the Census Bureau.

- Mr. Kroes is Cal-Tax's director of research.

Stephen Kroes

This shift to fee-based funding is not surprising since fee increases face fewer obstacles than tax increases.