The City needs capital additions to its many infrastructures in order to continue to be able meet the service demand needs of new...

When the authors of Proposition 4 in 1979 were writing the ballot measure it was based on the idea that government should act more like a...

A recent question on the CSMFO website was from a finance director that wondered what to do when the fiscal year had twenty-seven pay...

I am certainly happy that we’re in 2021, and there’s a vaccine for the virus which has affected all our lives and killed over 2 Million...

The last thing I ever needed to hear from one of my clients was “We are being sued over our impact fees”. Never fun. But that is just...

After going through the process of doing a Fee Study and getting the fees approved by your Council, your thoughts turn to having a really...

The California Public Records Act (PRA), all the supplementary legislation, and numerous court decisions has made it clear and specific...

My hometown is asking voters to approve a sales tax increase of 1.25% in November 2020. I know they need the money, but it is certainly a...

In July of 2017, I wrote my first RCS article about Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) in which I merely identified the differing types of...

There are four players in the development game: developers, contractors, landowners and residents. Each plays a critical role, and each...

In just about every project we work on our client city asks for a fee comparison to neighboring cities. And just about every time we...

Most every municipal finance officer is aware of the five findings (in Government Code §66000) required to adopt development impact...

We all know that government is not allowed to make a profit on the services that it provides.  While there are exceptions with the rental...

Have you heard of Doug Ayres? If you are old enough, you might have worked for him or taken a class from him. Or, like me, you might have...

At about every other Council or town-hall meeting I attend there is the question about whether development fees (planning fees, permit...

The land-use database inventory is the spine of any Development Impact Fee (henceforth DIF ) calculation effort.  It is a data table that...

Since there is a lot of interest in credit card processing and convenience fees recently, I thought this would be a great time to write...

As the typical reader of the RCS blog articles, you are a technically skilled government finance professional and can make a strong...

While performing a fee update and going through the hundreds of different fees and fines which a city may have, we noticed some fees...

In my early years of calculating development impact fees (henceforth DIFs) I had to experiment with different nexus factors for...