MOSES LAKE — Some fees charged by the city of Moses Lake could go down, others could go up and there might be some new fees entirely. Those were some of the results of a fee study commissioned by city officials. 

The study was a result of the city’s “sustainability plan,” approved by the Moses Lake City Council in April. The goal is to reduce and eventually eliminate deficits in the city’s general fund, which ran deficits in 2025 and 2026.

Assistant City Manager James Richmond said the fee study covered “general government” fees, services such planning and development fees, the Surf ‘n Slide water park and other city recreation and cultural facilities. 

“The overall recommendation was to review our methodologies for cost recovery and adding fees for cost recovery that don’t currently exist,” Richmond wrote in response to questions from the Columbia Basin Herald. “Then develop a threshold of what cost recovery percentage we want to capture, versus allowing for sales tax (and) property tax to cover services that serve a general public purpose.”

The study’s authors said the city’s existing fees don’t cover the costs, but they’re not designed to.

“Full cost recovery is not a goal for all fee-backed services; many are subsidized by design to reflect policy priorities such as affordability or public benefit,” the study said. 

City officials generally base potential fee increases on the rate of inflation, rather than the cost of service, which has increased more than inflation. 

The study found that Community Development gets back about 72.6% of the costs. Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services, on the other hand, recovers about 21% of its costs. That’s below the national benchmark for fee-generated revenue, the study said.

The study’s authors recommended evaluating the water park fees.

“Evaluate the aquatic center fees and consider lowering them to be more in line with peers or offering additional lower-cost options,” the report said.

The water park is the most expensive parks operation, costing about $1.24 million to operate. The water park recovered about $1.1 million through fees, about 88% of its expenses.

Surf ‘n Slide fees are higher than similar facilities in other regional cities, but the water park is bigger than the other regional facilities. 

The authors recommended city officials consider establishing a fee schedule for engineering services, which doesn’t as of now doesn’t charge any fees. 

“Many engineering services are associated with fee-backed services, but the division does not have its own fee schedule,” it said.

It gave examples of development agreement reviews and pre-application meetings as possible engineering fee services.

The Community Development department makes back about 73% of expenses through fees, which the report said reflects an “efficient rate structure.” 

Richmond said the study will be used to evaluate city fees.

“This evaluation will be conducted by staff in 2027 and a revised fee schedule presented to the city council for consideration,” he said. 

    Fees charged for housing development planning will be scrutinized during a study of Moses Lake fees for service.