Orange County NC Website
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40 <br /> Fee StudyBackground <br /> Qualitative Factors for Increasing Fees and Reducing Subsidy <br /> While there are policy reasons to subsidize county fee programs, there are policy reasons why it <br /> is harmful to overly subsidize county programming: <br /> • Cost to Taxpayer — All costs that are subsidized by county are ultimately charged back to county <br /> residents through Property and Sales Tax, regardless of whether they could use the service. <br /> • Opportunity Cost of Subsidy —Any funding that is used to subsidize a program could instead be used to <br /> improve that program or fund a different county program that is of higher strategic priority. <br /> • Unanticipated Uses —Any fee that is set too low could have unanticipated uses or users. Out-of-County <br /> users could use county services if we are priced below our peers. Users of subsidized programs may not <br /> necessarily be highest need county residents. <br /> • Discourage Use — Fees can be set to actively discourage or limit types of use. Most frequently this is <br /> used to discourage multiple submissions or re-inspections. <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> 6 NORTH CAROLINA <br />