PUBLIC FINANCE
SOLUTIONS

Tindale Oliver’s Public Finance and Infrastructure Planning Solutions team includes economists, engineers, and planners who specialize in impact fee studies, assessments, user fees, alternative funding, and infrastructure planning studies. The principals of Tindale Oliver have invested more than 80 years of their professional careers working for city, county, and state agencies. This institutional knowledge affords them an understanding of and insight into issues that government officials face in comprehensive planning, infrastructure planning, and innovative infrastructure financing alternatives.

Through this institutional knowledge and insight, Tindale Oliver offers effective outcomes to its clients in selecting alternatives. We offer expertise in various methodologies used to perform funding studies, and we apply each methodology properly to ensure that the fees are understandable, accepted by stakeholders, and technically-defensible.

"Tindale Oliver’s technical report was transparent, clearly documented, and easy to follow. I haven’t encountered this level of documentation in assessment studies prior to their work."

– Dale Williams, Columbia County Manager

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Tindale Oliver offers Public Finance and Infrastructure Planning Solutions in the following areas:

Development Impact Fees

Tindale Oliver is nationally-recognized for our work with development impact fees for nearly all municipal services, including transportation, schools, parks, libraries, law enforcement, correctional facilities, fire/EMS, public buildings, and solid waste, among others. In recent years, we have successfully completed more than 250 impact fee studies and have pioneered advancements in impact fee theory and implementation.

Mobility/Multimodal Fees

Tindale Oliver has completed several mobility/multimodal transportation impact fee studies that have been successfully implemented. These studies provide local jurisdictions with the necessary flexibility to use impact fees to fund stand-alone bicycle, pedestrian, and transit capital projects and address any impact on the jurisdiction’s concurrency policies.

Economic Growth Planning/Fiscal Impact Analysis

Tindale Oliver developed a methodology that allows impact fees to be sensitive to the growth rate of a jurisdiction or areas within. This methodology links impact fees, other available revenues, and rates of growth to the community’s ability to maintain or obtain desired standards for all public services and facilities. This approach was applied in impact fee studies completed for and adopted by the cities of Albuquerque and Orlando as well as Pasco, Indian River, Marion and Hernando counties. This model also documents the impact of new growth on infrastructure needs that is used as part of fiscal impact analysis.

Assessments

Tindale Oliver provides assessment studies for fire, solid waste, and stormwater services. Our staff offer the necessary database and GIS capabilities to evaluate incident and property appraiser data in detail and to conduct the necessary analyses that not only result in an accurate and equitable assessment program but also minimize the potential for a lawsuit that challenges the data. Given the accuracy of our technical studies, we build consensus on assessment recommendations through public forums and workshops.

User Fees

Tindale Oliver offers expertise in user fee methodologies and has database capabilities to evaluate time-tracking data, which is supplemented with staff interviews. In addition, we understand the impact of indirect costs, overhead allocation, and other non-billable tasks that are directly related to the services for which a user fee is implemented. As such, we can reflect the full cost associated with providing related services.

Alternative Revenue Analysis/Business Plans

In addition to funding sources discussed above, Tindale Oliver provides options that consider other revenue sources, such as gas taxes, sales taxes, tax increment funding estimates, and others available to local governments. Our estimates not only review existing conditions but also evaluate long-term trends in population, income, tax bases, and other related variables to provide accurate estimates. Additionally, we create databases that track increases in the value of existing property/structures from the current population separately from tax increment revenues achieved due to new construction. This allows local governments to make the necessary policy decisions on how to use the tax increment funding. Our studies also include consideration or development of business plan components that provide local governments with a tool to integrate specific funding methods with the overall needs of a jurisdiction. Our business plans take into consideration all operating, maintenance, and capital needs to identify the pros and cons of various funding alternatives.

Administrative Manuals

Tindale Oliver prepares administrative manuals that address the day-to-day implementation of impact fees. These manuals include definitions of various land uses, procedures to determine how to classify a new structure in terms of land uses included in the impact fee schedule, procedures to complete alternative studies, and other operational considerations.

Our Strengths in Public Finance and Infrastructure Planning

• Principals with public sector department experience
• Sensitivity to client needs
• Experience and knowledge that minimizes startup time or unnecessary expenses in implementation
• Databases and trend information used to supplement local data
• Increased revenues for infrastructure capital improvements and operating budgets
• Reduced probability of studies being legally challenged
• Confidence, credibility, and acceptance of study recommendations by public and public officials
• Clear and concise reporting that minimizes confusion in implementation and results in more knowledgeable government staff spending less time administering programs
• Objectives addressed with a focus on strategies that enhance capital improvement programs and achieve business plans in terms of both capital projects and operating expenses