User Fees

A user fee is a fee, charge, or assessment levied on a class directly availing itself of, or directly subject to a governmental service, program, or activity (but not on the general public) as measures to be utilized solely to support the service, program, or activity.

The fee may be a set amount for all users, or may vary depending on the amount of service used, or a combination of both.

For example, a city may charge a set amount for all accounts to provide water to an address (to cover the expenses of maintaining the account), then charge an amount per gallon to cover the water used. Varying rates may be used to encourage water conservation, where an average usage is calculated based on average family size; if the amount exceeds that by a certain amount the rate jumps dramatically to "penalize" the users for "wasting water".