A user fee is a fee, tax, or impost payment paid to a facility owner or operator by a facility user as a

necessary condition In logic and mathematics, necessity and sufficiency are terms used to describe a conditional or implicational relationship between two statements. For example, in the conditional statement: "If then ", is necessary for , because the truth o ...

for using the facility. People pay user fees for the use of many public services and facilities. At the federal level in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, there is a charge for walking to the top of the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the United States. The copper statue, ...

, to drive into many

national parks A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individua ...

, and to use particular services of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

. States may charge tolls for driving on

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

s or impose a fee on those who camp in

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

s. Communities usually have entrance fees for public swimming pools and meters for parking on local streets as well as perhaps even parking spaces at public beaches, dump stickers and postage stamps. In

international development International development or global development is a broad concept denoting the idea that societies and countries have differing levels of economic or human development on an international scale. It is the basis for international classificatio ...

, user fees refer to a system fee for basic health care, education, or other services implemented by a

developing country A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreeme ...

to make up for the costs of these services. The

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...

often recommends that nations start charging fees for these services in order to reduce their budget deficits. This position is more and more challenged by many people who claim that user fees hurt the poorest the most. Some even argue that they should be free at the point of use.Gordon Brown: The next global cause: free education for all
The Independent
/ref> The alternative to funding facilities and services with user fees is to fund them with income taxes. Unlike user fees, income taxes are paid by everyone, including those who don't necessarily use or benefit from a specific facility or service.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:User Fees Taxation in the United States International development Payments