[ARIN-consult] Consultation on Approaches for Adjusting the ARIN Registration Services Plan Fee Schedule

[Chris Woodfield]

I feel like option #2 would be more palatable if there was some sort of external constraint, such as tying the annual increase to CPI or other index. If there’s concern that such an index might not track with costs, remember that this only covers fee increases that can be implemented without a community consultation - the Board can always vote to raise fees higher if truly needed, they just need to consult, such as current status quo. Hasn’t been a huge hurdle in the past.

Regarding a “use it or lose it”, I’ve seen similar rules/laws (thinking mainly of some municipal rent control statutes) where a capped increase can be banked, so assuming a 5% cap, it would be possible to increase, say, 4% one year, then 6% the next, leveraging the banked 1% from the previous year. 

This has been implicitly stated, but support for this policy from me would need to hinge on an explicit scope limit stating that any reorganization of fees (read: anything that doesn’t simply add an inflationary index to the existing fee structure) would not be covered by it.

I do concede the concern that this could more or less bake in increases in ARIN’s costs, as vendors, staff, et al are in a better position to predict ARIN’s revenues in the future and could use that info against ARIN in pricing negotiations. That said, there are enough other variables (on the plus side: legacy space coming under LRSA or RSA via transfers; on the minus side, increases in inter-RIR outbound transfers)  that could impact the top line, which I’d hope could blunt this some.

-C


> 
> 
> (2) The ARIN organization *might* unofficially adopt a "use it or lose" budget policy. Suppose multiple consecutive fee increases were requested and approved under the proposed Option B, but the budget was never fully spent. The organization might find ways to spend the budget in order to justify its current spending but also preserve the option for future fee increases.
> 
> I am not saying the above is occurring, but could conceivably happen sometime in the future should the board adopt option B.
> 
> 
> 
> If ARIN leadership (John Curran, et al.) feel they need to increase fees in order to effectively run the organization, they should follow existing procedures -- submit a budget proposal, consult period with community regarding increase in fees, etc.
> 
> Nothing, as it stands today, prevents ARIN leadership from using existing processes to increase fees as little or frequently to effectively run the organization.
> 
> 
> Again, I strongly urge that Option B *not* be adopted.
> 
> -- 
> Adam Brenner
> https://aeb.io/
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