what do you call it when the government charges those getting benefit
vs. taxing all and allowing some to use services as needed?  (an
example would be when the SEC charges the public companies they
regulate fees)

I believe the term you are thinking of, particularly in terms of
government charging for provided services, is a "user fee".

Doing a quick search of google for user fee (
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=user+fee ) I come
accross a number of government related websites using the phrase in
the context that you mentioned.

Some example titles are:

"IRS Proposes to Charge a User Fee to Process Offers-in..." (
www.irs.gov/businesses/small/ article/0,,id=102656,00.html )

"Why is Isle Royale National Park collecting a user fee? ... The
park’s user fee is needed to address funding shortages which have
accumulated for some time" ( www.nps.gov/isro/fee.htm )

"Camping [User Fee]; Boat Launch Ramps [Day-Use Fee..." (
www.lrl.usace.army.mil/grl/userfees.htm )

I hope this is what you are looking for. If it is not, please let me
know with a clarification and I will get back to work on this one.

Search Strategy:

"User fee"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=user+fee

---

Request for Answer Clarification by holguinero-ga on 27 May 2003 12:28 PDT

that's a good phrase, but is there another one that might also apply
to broader concept of government load on the public?  e.g.,   suppose
municipal govt takes the entire universe of those fined for breaking
laws that it enforces using police department.  the total fines
collected is apportioned so that it's 100% (or more) funded by those
fined.  in that way, the general public is not hit with a portion of
the expenses via general tax collection.


p.s. thanks for jumping on this. i'm in the middle of something
involving this right this minute.

---

Clarification of Answer by funkywizard-ga on 27 May 2003 12:46 PDT

I did a quick search of "self sufficient law enforcement" (
://www.google.com/search?q=self+sufficient+law+enforcement&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off
), and though the links weren't quite as good as for "User Fee", I
found one interesting one.

"Alcohol Epidemiology Program: News" (
http://www.epi.umn.edu/alcohol/about/news.html )

It says here about a program used to stop alcohol sellers from serving
to minors "After initial funding, alcohol outlet enforcement is
self-sufficient, paid by fines on outlets selling/serving to minors or
intoxicated patrons."

A somewhat less used term would be "abuser fee", which in my searching
was used occasionally to describe what you seem to be looking for.

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=abuser+fee

If this isn't what you're looking for let me know, and I'll keep
digging. Any other context you can put this in might help me think of
a few more keywords to look for.

that'll do it. thanks.

In environmental circles, we call it "polluter pays", which is just a
topic-specific use of the more general term "abuser fees" or "abuser
pays".

Another phrase that fits your description is "regulatory fees," which
are distinguishable from taxes because they are charged only to
entities that are regulated by an agency (e.g., SEC, FCC) and are
supposed to be keyed to the costs of providing that regulation.

This is somewhat related to the subject...

Many states use the revenues from cigarette taxes to pay for
anti-tobacco advertising and public health programs. This type of tax
is often referred to as a "sin tax."

In New Zealand we call it "user pays," if that helps at all.