30 SECONDS WITH YOUR MAYOR
Local governments must comply with increasingly complex and costly state and federal regulations related to water quality and stormwater control. Unfortunately, stormwater management operations are historically difficult to fund and maintain. Implementing a stormwater utility can help communities generate adequate and stable funding for proactive stormwater management programs such as watershed planning and modeling, capital improvement projects, flood control and other pollution prevention activities.
Implement a Stormwater Utility Ordinance to provide the legal authority to collect user fees from property owners in relationship to their stormwater impacts. The Stormwater Utility Ordinance would clearly outline the following elements:
 Definition of stormwater challenges and proposed solutions
 Utility mission, vision and organizational structure
 Preliminary fee analysis
 Public education and outreach
 Cost-of-service analysis
 Utility policies, billing and collection system and customer service program
Stormwater utilities provide a number of benefits compared to traditional funding mechanisms because they are: 1
 Equitable – Stormwater utility fees are considered equitable because property owners pay in proportion to their impact on the stormwater management system. Fees are also based on planned expenditures to address collective stormwater impacts.
 Dedicated – Unlike general funds, all revenue collected under the stormwater utility must be allocated to stormwater programs. Audits and financial assessments ensure fees are related to actual costs incurred and expenses are aligned to the mission of the utility.
 Continuous – A stormwater utility ensures funds will be available in the future in a regular fashion for necessary maintenance, as opposed to general funds that can vary from year to year or general economic conditions.
 Legal – When based on a utility rate study and a detailed evaluation of billing units, stormwater utilities are legally defensible and have been upheld in numerous states.
Estimated Scoping Costs:
Estimated Implementation Costs:
1 http://www.northgeorgiawater.org/files/Sec9_Implementation_Watershed_May2009.pdf
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