When most consumers see “taxes and fees” on any number of their bills, they couldn’t care less about which expenses are “taxes” and which are “fees.” Both, after all, have the same impact on their pocketbooks.

But in many sectors, fees are much better and fairer for consumers for funding the services they want the most. One great example is the airport fee system, including passenger facility charges and rental car fees. Flyers may groan about PFCs and rental car fees imposed by airports, but revenues from these charges are locally administered and go toward improvements for the services being used by the payers.