In article et,
says...

Not to knock Ben but I would not fly out of SMO (A little pricey for takeoffs
takeoffs and landings).

The fee is per landing, not per takeoff, and it is at $2.07 per 1000 Max
gross weight, rounded down. So a 172 class aircraft is $4.14.

The landing fee is waived for aircraft based at SMO. So if he was
renting from an SMO FBO, the aircraft would hopefully be listed as based
at SMO, so you can land as many times as one would want at SMO.

It's not the tower collecting tail numbers. They don't care. According
to the FAA safety seminar I went to last fall with the SMO tower chief
as speaker, there's a city guy sitting in a truck next to the runway
with binoculars and a clip-pad taking down tail numbers. There's no way
to pay on the field. They look up the registered owner and mail the
bill there each month.

--Carlos V.