In my township, you had to pay for permits to do most jobs. I got myself elected to the township board and talked the rest of the board to issue the permits for free. Logic: If the township wants to make sure that citizens are complying with local zoning ordinances and safety issues, which is the reason for permits in the first place, they should consider not charging anybody for a permit. People are generally honest and if they didn't have to pay a myriad of fees, they would most likely do things properly. I saw one guy who wanted to do some expanding and remodeling pay more for the permits than he did for the materials for the job.