A VESSEL LICENSING FEE AS AN ALTERNATIVE PROPOSAL FOR A DEEP DRAFT WATERWAY USER CHARGE1

ABSTRACT: Congress, with the support of the Reagan Administration, is considering the imposition of a user fee on deep draft waterways and ports. Two major bills emerged in the 98th Congress and proposes a tax on import-export value while the other proposes a tax on import-export tonnage. This paper proposes and discusses another user fee alternative, a vessel licensing system. It outlines the advantages of such a fee system under a set of assumed objectives and discusses the range of possible license charge levels under a cost recovery target of $250 million.