Green Fees: The Challenge of Pricing Externalities Under State Law

57 Pages Posted: 27 Sep 2018

See all articles by Erin Adele Scharff

Erin Adele Scharff

Arizona State University (ASU) - Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law

Date Written: 2018

Abstract

Policymakers at the state and local level are increasingly interested in using market-based pricing mechanisms as regulatory tools. For example, at the state level, several states have recently considered state-level carbon pricing, while at the local level, municipal governments are increasingly turning to stormwater remediation fees to pay for the treatment of municipal runoff required by the Clean Water Act.

These regulatory programs are inspired by the insight of English economist Arthur Pigou, who suggested governments could price social costs into market transactions by imposing a tax. Such policies, however, are frequently subject to state court litigation challenging them as unlawful taxes. State law restricts both state and local governments’ ability to enact taxes, but similar restrictions are often not in place to limit the enactment of regulatory actions or user fees. Unfortunately, state courts have struggled to appropriately classify these fees under existing state law doctrines.

Such legal instability makes state and local governments less likely to adopt such policies, even when there are strong arguments for doing so. This Article takes a critical look at current state law governing the distinction between user fees and taxes. This Article then argues that Pigovian levies do not fit neatly into either legal category under the definitions in place in most states. As a result, this Article proposes reforms to state user fee definitions that would bring needed clarity to user fee doctrine. Specifically, this Article suggests state courts recognize separate categories of user fees. One such category, price-based regulatory tools, would allow governments to impose Pigovian charges as user fees so long as the charge was roughly commensurate with the externality costs or with the governments’ expenses in abating the externality.

Keywords: Tax Policy, State and Local Finance, and State and Local Government

Suggested Citation

Scharff, Erin Adele, Green Fees: The Challenge of Pricing Externalities Under State Law (2018). 97 Neb. L. Rev. 168 (2018), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3254532

Erin Adele Scharff (Contact Author)

Arizona State University (ASU) - Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law ( email )

P.O. Box 877906
Tempe, AZ 85287-7906
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
80
Abstract Views
723
Rank
551,205
PlumX Metrics