Prescott adopts FY2027 citywide fee schedule, approves several departmental fee changes

The Prescott City Council on May 26 adopted a citywide fee schedule for fiscal year 2027 and approved an ordinance amending the city code on annual fee adjustments. The measures passed by unanimous vote (7-0) and would take effect July 1, 2026.

Finance Director Lars Johnson said the approach consolidates departmental fee changes into a single schedule and applies a 1.2% CPI adjustment to fees previously indexed to CPI. The presentation noted exceptions for water, wastewater and solid-waste fees, which follow separate rate processes.

Notable changes include airport fee adjustments: removal of a $200 deposit and introduction of a $150 non-refundable application fee for hangar applicants, a reduced badge renewal fee and a new access-control fee. IT/GIS proposed charging commercial users for custom data and tiles to recover costs. Recreation services proposed a new hockey-rink rental rate ($10 per hour) after the third-party contract for the rink ended.

Public safety and ordinance-driven items include a statutory emergency-response fee for impaired-driver accidents (statutory maximum $1,000) to recover city response costs. Councilmembers asked staff to post outstanding court fee proposals as public notice and indicated solid-waste and fire-fee adjustments would follow separate processes when ready.

Council adopted Resolution No. 2026-1986 and Ordinance No. 2026-1947 by unanimous vote; staff said some mid-year updates (court fees, solid-waste adjustments) will be noticed and returned to council in the coming months.