[cfeduke]

My county government got in bed with InvoiceCloud and prominently offers the payment option that includes a service fee when paying my property taxes. (The service fee for last half was ~$350.) It's still possible to pay via fee-less bank transfer for now, but the website says in the future I'll need to pay in person by check to avoid fees. This is instead of the original method of receiving paper property bills and sending a check in return.

The website was designed by contractors paid for by tax dollars unassociated with InvoiceCloud.

These are similar problems - billing and payment can be difficult problems due to the way the industry operates. But the trend towards making it more inconvenient (or in some cases, impossible) to pay by any other means that does not include a price gouging service fee is not adding value for consumers.