America’s 3 Most Fee-Ridden Cities

This story was originally released on September 16,
2014. The original write-up is below:

Fees, fines, and petty law enforcement: Little ticky-tack
violations can pile up quickly and are enough to drive even the
most civic-minded citizens crazy. But they can also create an
undercurrent of hostility between citizens and the government
officials who are supposed to serve them.
Former Reason writer Radley Balko uncovered a pattern
of overzealous
fee-collection in the suburbs of St. Louis county
forThe Washington Post and speculated that the
overbearing law enforcement helped create a pressure-cooker
environment that finally exploded in the wake of the Michael Brown
shooting.

“When you have towns like those in St. Louis county that get in
some cases, 40 percent of their municipal revenue in fines and
fees, they have chosen a very expensive way of taxing their
population, one that creates maximum hassle and maximum hostility,”
says Walter Olson, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and
publisher of the blog Overlawyered.

Watch the video above for Reason TV compilation of America’s 3
Most Fee-Ridden Cities, listed below:

3. Detroit, Michigan

In the wake of the largest municipal bankruptcy in history,
Detroit launched a variety of revenue-generating schemes, such as
raising the prices of parking meters in a downtown with a rapidly
dwindling population and workforce. Unfortunately for the city,
about half their meters are broken, making it one of the only
cities to actually lose
money on parking enforcement. But what really grants
Detroit this honor is “Operation Compliance,” an initiative pushed
by former mayor David Bing aimed at bringing all of Detroit’s small
businesses up to code through costly permitting. The initiative
launched with the stated goal of shutting
down 20 businesses a week.

2. Ferguson, Missouri

Ferguson has stayed in the news for the massive protests over
the police shooting of Michael Brown and for the militarized
response of law enforcement to those protests. But tension between
the citizens and the government run deep in Ferguson and the other
nearby St. Louis suburbs. Citizens report of being constantly
harassed by law enforcment over minor violations and then being
forced to navigate through an overrun court system.
The Washington Post reported that one courthouse in St.
Louis County had issued five arrest warrants per citizen.

1. Bell, California

Residents of this tiny California town just south of Los Angeles
rose up against the local government after learning that their city
officials were robbing them with high property taxes and ridiculous
parking fines and city fees in order to pay themselves exorbitant
salaries. The ringleader was City Manager Robert Rizzo, who paid
himself $1.5
million in annual salary and benefits in a town with a per
capita household income of $24,800. Rizzo is now rotting in federal
prison alongside his accomplice, former Assistant City Manager
Angela Spaccia, but the town is still on the hook for the $137
million in debt left behind. Locals call it the “Rizzo
Tax.”

“Ideally, the local population would rise up and say, ‘It’s time
to take back our town. Government is not just a revenue source. It
should be an engine of justice.’ Until that happens, we’ve got a
much wider problem,” says Olson. 

Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Camera by Paul Detrick, Tracy
Oppenheimer, and Weissmueller. Approximately 4 minutes.

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