Homeowners will shell out more in the taxes and fees they pay Metro Vancouver next year.

The increase works out to $37 more for a typical $600,000 home, which will be charged $469 in 2010 for regional district services, including water, sewer and waste.

Regional district board members on Friday approved the 2010 Metro Vancouver budget of $566 million, up 4.1 per cent.

Most of the increase will come from jacking water fees to pay for the region's new $784-million water filtration plant on the North Shore, where trouble building underground water tunnels have driven costs way up from the original $600-million budget.

The typical home will pay $190 for water next year, up $21.

Metro board chair Lois Jackson said she wants staff to extend the time period to pay off the Seymour-Capilano Water Filtration Plant.

"By and large I believe in pay as you go, but it's pretty hard when you've got a big ticket item like almost a billion dollars for a water filtration plant," she said.

Paying the plant off over longer than the currently planned 15 years would shift some of the burden from current residents to future residents, she noted.

Garbage tipping fees are also going up $11 to $82 per tonne, adding roughly another $10 per household per year.

The increase is because garbage revenues are down – more people are recycling or reusing rather than discarding waste – but most of Metro's fixed costs remain the same. The search for disposal alternatives to the near-full Cache Creek landfill is also proving costly.

To some degree, Metro is a victim of its own success in urging conservation through campaigns to reduce waste and water use.

Besides decreased waste disposal, water consumption is also down 0.4 per cent and water rate revenue is off as a result.

Spending is also up on seismic upgrades to ensure utilities keep working in the event of an earthquake as well as air quality testing and monitoring.

The region also faces rising costs to maintain aging water and sewer pipes, pumping systems and sewage treatment plants.

Only critical repairs will go ahead in 2010, but Metro officials expect the bills will rise in subsequent years.

Taxpayers can really brace for a beating once Metro starts building new sewage treatment plants – needed to replace the Lions Gate and Iona plants – and either costly waste incinerators or other systems to handle garbage.

More than $5 billion in capital spending on such projects is needed over the next decade, according to a Metro Vancouver report.

"I'm really concerned about water, sewer and garbage costs," Jackson said.

Metro estimates the cost of its combined services to residents could climb 50 per cent to more than $660 per household within five years.

The regional district could defer or cancel major projects.

But it is already under fire from environmental groups, which want a faster replacement of the old sewage treatment plants blamed for threatening fish and marine life in Georgia Strait.

Metro officials say they have exercised an "appropriate level of restraint" for 2010 in light of this year's economic downturn, trimming $3 million in spending.

Metro taxes and service fees are on top of TransLink regional taxes, local city property taxes and school taxes.

The combined hit to the typical household from regional, city and TransLink taxes is already $5,628 per year and that is forecast to more than double to $12,418 by 2030 under Metro's "moderate" cost projection.

The portion of average household income that goes in taxes to the region, local cities and TransLink has already climbed from 7.9 per cent in 2004 to 8.6 per cent now.

Under Metro's "optimistic" scenario, that's predicted to be held to no more than 9.6 per cent over the next two decades.

But if inflation outstrips income growth, the typical household could be paying out 11.4 per cent by 2020 and 13.6 per cent by 2030.

Under a "pessimistic" scenario where inflation is significantly worse, the three levels of government may consume 14.3 per cent of household income by 2020 and 20.6 per cent by 2030.

"We've got some huge costs that taxpayers are going to be faced with," said Belcarra Mayor Ralph Drew.

METRO AVERAGE 2010 COST PER HOME

(based on $600,000 home)

Regional taxes – $37 (up $2)

Sewage fees – $162 (up $4)

Garbage disposal – $80 (up $10)

Water rates – $190 (up $21)

TOTAL: $469 (up $37)