Tattoo parlors and religious camps, hotels and restaurants, body piercers, and bed and breakfasts would have to pay new and higher fees to the state under a proposal to help plug a budget hole.

The state Department of Health Services hopes the increased fees will be enough to dig out of a projected $2.5 million deficit for its Food Safety and Recreational Licensing program.

The proposal, submitted last week, was getting a muted response.

"The timing on this isn't the greatest," said Susan Quam, executive director of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association's education foundation.

Even so, the state needs to have enough money to do timely inspections so consumer confidence in restaurants is high, she said.

"I'd like to think these types of fee increases, while unwelcome by some, should not be onerous from the standpoint of making or breaking a business," Quam said.

The most expensive inspection required for restaurants that handle raw meat, poultry and seafood would increase from $290 to $430 in 2010 and go up another $110 in 2012.

Restaurants aren't the only ones affected. The fees will raise the cost of doing business for a variety of entities including tattoo and body piercing parlors, recreational and educational campgrounds, regular campgrounds, hotels, motels and tourist rooming houses, bed and breakfasts, and food vending machine operators.

The higher fees will be hard on the 1,000 members of the Wisconsin Innkeepers Association, said the group's president, Trisha Pugal.

"It will definitely be challenging for properties, especially those that may not be having a great year so far," she said.

Pugal was on a committee of those representing affected industries that met with the state to help craft the proposal. The proposed fees are higher than what had been previously discussed, she said.

While it's understandable that they need to go up after years with no increases, what needs to be examined is whether what is being proposed is appropriate and reasonable, Pugal said.

The state Health Department said in materials filed with the proposal that the effect on businesses will be varied, with those requiring re-inspections because of violations bearing more of a cost than those who don't have any problems.

The higher fees, to start in 2010, average out to about $20 to $100 more a year, the Health Department said. Most fees have not kept pace with inflation and the overall burden is small, it said.

But the newly proposed re-inspection fees are considerably higher. A tattoo parlor would have to pay $150, for example, and some restaurants would have to fork over $610.

Those re-inspection fees will affect only those businesses that pose an increased risk to the public due to significant violations of public health and safety rules, the department said.

The existing fees were last increased in 2002, except for certain tattoo and body piercing fees, which haven't gone up since 1998, the department said.

The biggest concern of Chet Gerlach, executive director of the Association of Wisconsin Tourism Attractions, was that the state do all it can to save money on inspections.

"If they need additional money, we can understand that," Gerlach said. "As long as we can be assured that they're making the best use of technology available and personnel."

Gerlach said he was waiting to hear back from the association's 70 members — which include the Kalahari resort in Wisconsin Dells and Monona Terrace in Madison — before taking a position on the proposal.

The proposal comes at a time when state government agencies are forced to cut nearly $500 million within the next 12 months to balance the budget in the weakening economy. The program that charges the fees exists entirely on money it collects from those fees and not other tax dollars.

The fees are a long way from becoming reality. They will be the subject of hearings across the state and must also be approved by legislative committees that deal with the affected industries.

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