Fiscal impact analyses / cost of community services studies

[Lee Nellis]

Does anybody out there have experience with fiscal impact and cost of community services studies? I have done a bunch, but I always like to re-think the issues as I begin a new one. Here's my question.

In Vermont, as in many other states, localities receive a share of the state fuel tax on a mileage basis. Given that population can and does change while the miles of road remains the same, these revenues cannot be said to vary with the number of people or dwellings. Conventional COCS practice would be to allocate them out to the various land uses proportionally, based on property value. But, of course, there is no necessary relationship between the number of miles of road and the costs of maintaining the roads serving various uses. In our case a lot more miles serves the farms and rural residences than the denser homes or the commercial core, but then, on the other hand, maintaining the higher volumes roads costs more. Does it balance out? Any thoughts or suggestions will be appreciated!

[sisterceleste]

The Florida state Dept of Community Affairs hired a consultant to prepare a generic fiscal impact model for use by Florida cities and counties. We have spent around
around $15,000 getting it calibrated with County data. We are just now applying it to land use change applications. The consultant is doing those too at a cost of around $5000 per application. Our goal is to bring it in house and pay the consultant one a year to update the calibration.
The product gives up the fiscal impact of costs and revenues of services to provide for the eventual build out of the project. It does school impact costs also.