5.5 COSTS OF DATA COLLECTION

Finally, to properly plan for the implementation of a stormwater utility fee or assessment, an estimate of the implementation costs is needed for budget purposes. Provided below is a discussion of the general costs for materials and labor during the data collection process. The costs do not include the development of a GIS system to accommodate the stormwater utility database, nor new equipment costs such as computers. Costs are provided as a "ball-park" estimate, as well as in a more detailed fashion with a cost-estimating form.

5.5.1 "Ball-Park" Estimate of Costs

Based upon experience, use of a percentage of the projected first year's utility revenue is the simplest method of estimating the cost of the stormwater utility implementation process. A rule-of-thumb estimate of the annual revenue for a stormwater utility is $10 per capita per $1.00 per ERU per month. This means that for a rate of $1/month/ERU, a stormwater utility fee will generate about $10 per capita for the municipality. For example, a city with population of 25,000 will generate about $250,000 per year with a stormwater utility rate of $1/month/ERU, and a county of 150,000 will generate about $1,500,000 per year for a $12/year/ERU rate (i.e., $1/month). Experience has also shown that the cost of implementation for the stormwater utility can be estimated as 1/8 to 1/6 of the annual revenue from a $1/mo/ERU rate. For the examples, then, the implementation cost would range from about $30,000 to $40,000 for the city, and about $180,000 to $250,000 for the county. In general, the smaller the municipality, the higher the relative cost. These estimates are not exact and should be used only for very preliminary estimates.

5.5.2 Detailed Estimate of Costs

Another method of estimating data collection costs for the implementation of a stormwater utility fee or assessment is through unit costs. Appendix B provides a simple cost estimating form that can be easily made into a spreadsheet. The costs are based upon estimates of material and labor costs.

Material Costs

• Parcel Boundary Maps - free from Property Appraiser
• Aerials: Section Scale Paper Maps - free from Property Appraiser; 9 by 9 photographs from FDOT - $10 per diapositive print; Scanned and Rubber-sheeted 9 by 9's - $200 per print

Labor Costs

• Manual Digitizing - 0.5 hours per parcel
• Computer Digitizing - 0.125 hours per parcel
• Association of Utility Customer with Parcel - 0.25 hours per parcel
• Temporary (Contract) Labor - $8.00 per hour

For an example of the use of these unit costs, suppose a municipality is covered by 20 FDOT prints and has 5,000 parcels to be measured. If the measurements are to be done on paper, there is no cost for the maps, and it would take about 15 weeks for a staff of 4 to digitize the information. An additional 7.5 weeks would be needed to match the parcel information with utility customers for a total of about 23 weeks. If one of the four staff members is an existing municipal employee, then three could be temporary at a cost of $22,000 (3 staff members times 23 weeks times 40 hours per week times $8 per hour).

If, for example, this community wishes to create a digital database by scanning the 9 by 9 FDOT photographs, then the digital data would cost about $4,200, and digitizing costs would be about $11,500 (3 staff members times 12 weeks times 40 hours per week times $8 per hour). Total cost would be about $15,600, which is less than the manual costs mainly due to the reduced labor for computer digitizing the data. Also, a digital record of the information will be available for public review and to aid in database maintenance.

These methods and examples provide only an estimate of data collection costs. Use of proper geographic information system (GIS) techniques will result in different costs and schedules.