“Why do you charge a ‘convenience fee’ to use a credit card?”
This fee is not charged by the County, but by the service provider who processes the payment. Unlike other payments which are voluntary and generally go to support a specific service, taxes are mandatory and support public services generally. When someone uses electronic payment a portion of that amount is taken by the service company leaving that portion of the bill unpaid. If the County made up the difference out of public money, we would be using public money to satisfy a private debt. The County does not use one citizen’s taxes to pay another citizen’s bill, therefore, we require the citizen using the service to pay the fee themselves.