Cost recovery is the principle of setting user fees to cover the full cost of providing a service, so users pay rather than general taxpayers subsidizing the service. Full cost recovery means fee revenue equals service delivery cost. Partial cost recovery covers some but not all costs. Decisions about cost recovery levels involve policy choices about who should pay for services—should recreation programs be fully user-funded or subsidized as community benefits? Should development application fees cover full planning department costs? Cost recovery analysis involves identifying all costs (direct, indirect, overhead) attributable to a service. Fee structures can include provisions for low-income access to services with high cost recovery.