Looks like this was announced back in June. I've tried searching, but haven't found any mention of it here. Has this already been discussed somewhere on CD?
The PNW district announced some
upcoming changes for the 2016 season on their website. (It's also linked from the PNW district section of the FRC payment terms page at usfirst.org.) EDIT: also
here and
here (nicer webpage versions).
In short, WashingtonFIRST (on behalf of PNW) is fronting all expenses of teams and events in the district to USFIRST, while teams instead make their payments to WashingtonFIRST (except payments for regionals outside the district and the FIRST championship). This leaves the PNW district free to structure the fees as they like; they are choosing to bill teams for the entirety of PNW expenses, dividing their costs evenly among the teams. They estimate each team's fee will be $10,652. This allows them to direct their fundraising toward directly supporting teams in the form of grants to bring down this cost, to their goal of $5000-$6800. Teams' past fundraising efforts would continue to cover this remainder.
The announcement itself is a great read. They talk about transparency, reducing costs, and reducing competition between PNW and teams for donor support. I find it striking how they've evenly distributed the cost, so that everyone is paying for everyone's events (not just DCMP attendees paying for DCMP, 3rd event attendees paying for 3rd events, etc.) as well as the cost of PNW supporting the program (including the bill from USFIRST for supporting PNW and its teams).
It's unclear what this means for interdistrict play, but that isn't a great option in the isolated PNW district, compared to the numerous adjacent districts in the eastern US.
Please discuss.
(Or redirect me to somewhere this is already being discussed?)
Don't be too arrogant as to think that just because you didn't invent it, it is not useful. - ptan [more] 
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