In today's news:
The U.S. airline passenger security fee would rise by $1.50 to $4 for each segment of a flight under a homeland security appropriations measure outlined by Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.
President Barack Obama proposed such an increase in his budget in February. The current fee is $2.50 for each flight segment, with a maximum of $5 for a one-way trip. The proposed fee would be $4 per flight segment with a maximum of $8 for a one-way trip. The increased revenue would be used for additional security.
I can think of all sorts of witty comments about how secure I will feel and how small a price this is for real security, but I think I will leave that task to the experts here. @:-)
Personally, I have always felt it unfair to burden travelers with costs that arise because terrorists have an airplane fetish. If terrorists only attacked day care centers, would we tax day care centers to recover the security cost, or would we pay the cost out of general tax revenue?
That opinion aside, however, I believe that air travel is simply too tempting a target... for taxation. So are rental cars and hotel rooms. These expenses seem destined to perpetual taxation at high levels. Given that reality, earmarking some of the tax for security expenses may not mean that the taxes would have been any lower in the absence of such earmarking.