It doesn't matter what a Verizon customer service representative said. Recovery Fees are not a tax and are not paid to the government. There is no justifiable reasons why they're broken out into a separate line item except to hide the total cost of service.

By that logic, why stop there? Why not have Gas Taxes, Vehicle Registration Fees, Payroll Taxes, Corporate Property Taxes, or Permitting Fees as separate line items in the cellular bill? Which may sound absurd, but that's identical logic to most of the existing non-tax fees.