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Lake Havasu City

Lake Havasu City Adopts Fiscal Fee Policy

The City Council unanimously approved a revised Fiscal Sustainability Policy that formalizes how city fees are updated over a four-year cycle.

Updated on Nov. 6, 2026 in Financial Planning

Low modern municipal building beside a dry desert hillside, with a flagpole and clean concrete walkway under bright blue sky.
Lake Havasu City's council unanimously adopted a Fiscal Sustainability Policy on Oct. 27 that sets a four-year cycle for updating city fees. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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The Lake Havasu City Council unanimously adopted a revised Fiscal Sustainability Policy at its Oct. 27 meeting, formalizing a schedule for updating city fees. The schedule applies actual cost updates in year one, a CPI factor in years two and three, and a return to actual costs in year four.

Why it matters

The formal process is intended to make city fees more defensible by tying them to full city costs, service factors, fee history and inflation. Councilmember Nancy Campbell's concerns about business license fees and enforcement are expected to resurface when fee updates return to council.

The fee schedule runs on a four-year cycle, with the city currently in year three, which applies a CPI adjustment. The policy's specific fee dollar amounts were not detailed in the available information.

The players

Lake Havasu City Council

The elected governing body of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, responsible for adopting municipal ordinances, budgets and fee policies.

Nancy Campbell

A member of the Lake Havasu City Council who raised concerns about business license fees and the lack of enforcement against businesses operating without a license.

The details

Council considered two alternative schedule options at its Oct. 13 meeting before reaching consensus to formalize the current process. Fees are set to allow the city to recover reasonable costs of services and products, with other similar jurisdictions used as a benchmark.

Timeline

  1. Oct. 13: Council considered schedule options and reached consensus.

  2. Oct. 27: Council unanimously adopted the revised Fiscal Sustainability Policy.

Market Dynamics

Many municipalities use Consumer Price Index adjustments to keep fees aligned with inflation between full cost reviews. Lake Havasu City's four-year cycle combines CPI factors with periodic recalculation to actual costs.

Residents and businesses in Lake Havasu City may see fee changes that follow the four-year schedule, with the current year applying a CPI adjustment. Businesses operating without a required business license could face enforcement as the issue returns to council.

The takeaway

Formalizing how municipal fees are reviewed gives both the city and the public a clearer, more predictable basis for future fee changes. Residents who run businesses in town may want to confirm their business license status before the issue returns to council.

What happens next

Fee updates are expected to return to the City Council, at which point the discussion on business license fees is expected to continue.

Further reading

For related context on household budgeting, see Financial Planning.

Source note: This article includes information reported by Havasu News.

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Do you trust your local city government to set fees fairly?