Raising revenues during hard times

With property tax revenues declining and capital becoming costlier, the NYT reports that cities across the US are resorting to user charges and other unconventional fees to raise revenues to bridge their budgetary deficits. Since raising taxes is not an option and fees are more palatable than taxes, local governments have found innovative ways to raise resources - charges to clean up vehicle crashes on at-fault drivers, higher fees to renew licenses and for fresh registrations, "streetlight user fees", higher parking and other user fees, more intensive penalizing drives and higher fines by policemen and other enforcement agencies etc.