Blog | Revenue & Cost Specialists

Aug 14
4 min

Econ & Psych 101 and the Overconsumption of Water

How a review of basic economics and psychology can help us solve the "water crisis."

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Jul 18
6 min

Setting the Record Straight on PRA Fees

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

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Jun 12
3 min

How not to calculate Development Impact Fees - How AB 602 may affect you

2022 brought into law a new effort to standardize Development Impact Fees with the passage of AB 602, which, among other things, requires...

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May 15
2 min

How often is enough? When should you update your fees

As a fee consultant, the question that I get asked most often is, “How often should we be updating our fees?” Once I dispose of the...

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Apr 10
2 min

Seeking Civil Society - Redux

“Yes, Virginia, It Does Matter Whose Ox is Gored.” I’m sincerely interested in promoting civil society. As a preface to this article, I...

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Feb 10
1 min

CSMFO Conference

If you are attending the CSMFO Conference in San Diego next week, please stop by Booth 313 and say Hi. And if you are coming on Tuesday,...

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Nov 14, 2021
2 min

Taxes already pay staff’s salaries, don’t they?

A question that I am often asked by City Council members is, “Aren’t taxes already paying staff’s salaries, so why do we need to worry...

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Oct 17, 2021
3 min

Preparing for Climate Change as a Finance Director

I remember enjoying the early Tom Clancy novels. In 1994, I heard that his latest novel, Debt of Honor, involved a commercial airliner...

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But Wait…There’s More! A Fee Study Gives You More Than Additional Revenues

Sep 13, 2021
3 min

But Wait…There’s More! A Fee Study Gives You More Than Additional Revenues

The common understanding is that a fee study is performed to increase city revenues (even though the conversation should be about...

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Aug 15, 2021
2 min

The Effect of Time on Saved Money

I’m going to keep this short, but I think it’s powerful. It’s about what happens to your saved money over time. I was recently contacted...

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Jul 11, 2021
2 min

Another Look at Proposition 26

In a recent article, I talked about Proposition 4, passed in 1979, as the godfather of voter initiatives that defined service fees and...

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Jun 14, 2021
3 min

Modified Deposit Fees to the Rescue

After calculating the full cost for a current development-related application, the RCS effort turns to the process of cost recovery by...

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May 16, 2021
2 min

Always give 100% at work

I always give 100% at work; 10% on Monday, another 20% on Tuesday, 40% on Wednesday, almost done with another 10% on Thursday, and the...

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Apr 18, 2021
3 min

The difference between COA and DIF Projects

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

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Government as a Business - an idea past its time?

Mar 14, 2021
2 min

Government as a Business - an idea past its time?

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...

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Feb 14, 2021
3 min

Evolution of the Hourly Rate

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...

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Jan 25, 2021
2 min

Gratitude for 2020

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...

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Dec 15, 2020
5 min

RCS Impact Fees are Battle Tested

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...

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