More revenue to be raised with fee hikes

Dan Kulin

Thursday, Jan. 16, 2003 | 9:18 a.m.

North Las Vegas will now charge up to $25 for documents that previously had been free and is doubling the price the public will pay for certification of city documents.

The North Las Vegas City Council unanimously approved the fee increases Wednesday. The city will now charge $10 for legal-size and $25 for poster-size city ward maps that had previously been free. The city will also begin charging $2 for certifications of city documents that previously had cost $1.

Although the council moved forward with those public document price increases, it delayed a vote on fee increases for business licenses.

The proposed licensing fee changes would generate an additional $400,000 for the city, according to city documents. The mayor and some council members said the increases would only bring the city fees up to the level of fees in neighboring jurisdictions.

For example according to research presented by the city, a business license for an accountant in North Las Vegas costs $80 a year, compared with $150 in Las Vegas and Henderson and $300 in Clark County. The proposed changes would increase the cost of the license in North Las Vegas to $150.

The delay came after an engineering association representative raised concerns about how the proposed increases would affect engineers.

The proposal to require each individual engineer get a business license would be costly to engineering firms and could cause problems with firms' insurance carriers, said Peggy Pound, national director for Nevada for the American Council of Engineering Companies.

"Five firms in the valley will choose not to do business in North Las Vegas (if the proposed licensing changes are approved)," she told the council prior to the vote on the matter during the Wednesday night council meeting.

The council is considering raising more than 50 business license fees for the first time since 1968, including the fees for engineers.

The business license fee for an engineering firm is currently $80 a year. The proposed changes would increase that fee to $200 a year per engineer.

Pound said the increased cost would prompt some engineering firms to designate engineers within their company as the only ones licensed to work in North Las Vegas.

The proposed change could also cause problems with firms' insurance companies because firms have insurance for their companies, not for each individual engineer, she said. Licensing individual engineers could be at odds with those insurance policies, she said.

But city staff members said other governments in the Las Vegas Valley license individual engineers.

Pound said the city of Las Vegas licenses individual engineers, but Clark County and Henderson license engineering firms.