ABSTRACT
With local governments' commitment to reduce their historically heavy dependency on property tax proceeds in the early 1960s, they have been successful in part in doing so because of their willingness to substantially increase their usage of non-utility charges for services and user fees. This significant change is abundantly clear from the analysis in this chapter. However, it is important to point out that the actual growth in this type of OSR has been realized only by counties, municipalities, townships, and special districts; this has not been the case for school districts. Furthermore, there is strong evidence to suggest that there is a significant link between increases in the proportion of revenue coming from non-utility charges/fees and the simultaneous decreases in the percentage of revenue deriving from property tax collections. The largest amounts of non-utility charges/users revenues have been in the following service areas: hospitals, sewage, solid waste, airports, and parks and recreation. It is also significant to note that four types of local governments were receiving a much larger proportion of their OSR since 1962 from non-utility charges for services. The proportion of their OSR derived from utility-type sources basically remained the same over this same 55-year period.
