Courthouse fees

Re the Jan. 5 opinion piece Forget the repairs, Miami-Dade needs a new courthouse: Governments are increasingly turning to user fees to fund operations. It now costs more to enjoy the day at a county beach or a state park.

If you don’t want to stew in one of our traffic-clogged expressways, pay a fee and jump into the express lane. If you don’t like the fee, you don’t use the service. That way taxes stay low.

Perhaps County Commissioner Sally Heyman should consider user fees to pay for the new county courthouse she wants to build. Who would use this courthouse the most? Whose fees should fund it?

Maybe our legal eagles could pay a yearly registration fee at the courthouse where they make their money. Or maybe a tiny cut from the million-dollar awards many of them win for their clients could be set aside for a building fund. Maybe those fees could buy them that bigger and better courthouse that Heyman would like to pay for with county taxpayers’ money.

This story was originally published January 10, 2016 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Courthouse fees."