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~Z Community and Economic Development Bulletin 2 7 WebLOCI WebLOCI is a web-based application available by license through the Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute. WebLOCI is a fiscal impact tool that includes a simple component for estimating economic multiplier (indirect) effects. WebLOCI does not include industry-specific multipliers as a built-in feature. Including the indirect effects of a development project in a fis- cal impact analysis requires the user to either enter average multiplier ratios derived from an input-output model or estimate how much of a firm's inputs are purchased locally. Though the economic multiplier function of WebLOCI is limited and maybe prone to user error, users can add the indirect economic (multiplier} effects to the application's estimates of total fiscal impact. WebLOCI also enables users to conduct fiscal impact analysis for municipalities, while many prepackaged models cannot be used at a subcounty level. WebLOCI employs the per capita (household) method for estimating local government costs. For more information on the soft- ware application and model, visit http://webloci.innovate.gatech.edu. Cost of Community Services (COGS) Studies Some communities want to know generally ho~v different types of land uses might affect local government budgets. For these communities, a cost of community services (COGS) study can provide insight into the net fiscal impact of broad categories of land uses-agricultural, residen- tial, commercial, and industria1.24 The American Farmland Trust developed the COGS approach to enable communities to measure the contribution of agricultural open space land uses to the local tax base. As an alternative to traditional fiscal impact analysis methods, the COGS approach is a relatively straightforward way to determine the extent to which different land uses generate a positive net fiscal return. In a COGS study, current revenues and expenditures from a local government budget are allocated to broad land use categories based on expert opinion, particularly interviews with department heads and budget and finance staff. The COGS ratio compares total revenues to expenditures for each type of land use. A ratio of greater than 1.0 indicates that a respective land use more than pays for itself by contributing in tax revenues an amount that exceeds the costs of the public services it receives. COGS studies conducted throughout the United States consis- tently show that industrial, commercial, and agricultural land uses have revenue-expenditure ratios above 1.0. Conversely, these studies find that residential land uses have ratios that are almost always Iess than 1.0, meaning that fiscally they are a net drain.zs In contrast to traditional fiscal impact analysis, which estimates how a specific proposed development project and future growth will affect the local government budget, COGS is based on current revenues and expenditures for broad types of land use at a point in time and does not capture changes in population or economic activity. In this sense, COGS studies do not measure the fiscal impacts of growth and new development as such.26 However, by indicating generally whether certain land uses, on average, run a net fiscal surplus or deficit, COGS stud- ies can provide baseline information for making decisions about future development. There 24. Professor Mitch Renkow, an economist at North Carolina State University, has conducted COGS studies for counties in North Carolina, including Chatham, Orange, Alamance, Wake, and Henderson. See www cals.ncsu.edu/wq/lpn/cost.html. 25. See American Farmland Trust Cost of Community Services Fact Sheet" at www farmlandinfo.org/ documents/27757/COCS_8-06.pdf. 26. Timothy W. Kelsey, "The Fiscal Impacts of Alternative Land Uses: What Do Cost of Community Service Studies Really Tells Us?"Journal of the Community Development Society 27, no. 1 (1996). ©2010 School of Government. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill