Local governments in New York provide a wealth of services to their residents: water and sewer, parks and recreation, police protection, trash and recycling pickup, zoning and planning. If the municipality charges appropriate fees, the types of services that draw people to a given town, village or city can be a boon for the government coffers as well.

Municipalities should first revisit all the services they provide. For each service, ask: what value is the resident getting from this service?  What is the cost to provide that service? Are the residents who reap the most benefit paying a proportional share of the cost, or is there a need to restructure?

Services such as a 24-hour police department, or a massive summer recreation program with swimming pools, parks, kids’ activities, and ball fields, can be expensive to maintain. Many local governments provide twice-weekly trash pickup, plus bulk pickups, recycling, and yard-waste haul-away, all of which come with associated costs for the municipality.

Trash pickup is often included in taxes rather than broken out as a stand-alone fee or bill. It can be worth a municipality’s time to consider separating out the fees for trash pickup. This strategy can end up being more equitable for taxpayers.

For example, the City of Buffalo charges an annual set fee for trash pickup, as well as a variable fee based on the number and size of containers the customer typically uses, with higher fees charged to commercial customers. The fee structure is posted on the city’s website, along with detailed schedules and rules for the trash pickup and information on fees for bulk pickups beyond those the city regularly schedules.

Other municipalities, such as the City of Middletown, charge a set residential fee included in taxes, but charge extra for bulk pickups. Middletown charges a monthly rate for its commercial trash customers, with charges set out in the city code fee schedule.

Many municipalities also charge modest recreation fees for rentals of pavilions, fields, or other public amenities. A municipality might also charge the person renting out part of a park a special event fee. Reasonable fees can help defray the cost of clean-up or maintenance. Those municipalities with golf courses should carefully review the total costs of owning and operating the course to ensure that the revenues generated cover the total costs whether through concession contracts, greens or other fees.

Development is another area ripe for reexamination to ensure that fees are appropriate to the work performed and the services provided.

Municipalities typically require developers to deposit funds in escrow to cover the costs of legal and engineering reviews of proposals. But municipalities may be leaving money on the table if they don’t revisit the types of fees they charge.

A new housing development or commercial project means more homes or businesses for police to protect. Perhaps a municipality can add a police or public safety fee to defray those costs, much in the way that it would charge a hookup fee to connect a new development to water and sewer services.

Another thing for municipalities to consider is instituting a transfer tax for real estate purchases within their borders. While buyers pay mortgage tax and some of that does go to the municipality, the local government will get nothing if a buyer pays cash.

Each of these fees may be modest on its own, but the money can add up.

Local governments provide a wealth of services to the people who live within their municipal borders. Determining the cost of those services and charging appropriate, proportional fees can help municipalities generate the revenue needed to continue providing those valuable and valued benefits to taxpayers.