ABSTRACT
The Service Standard Method uses average costing to project the impact of population change on local municipal and school district costs and revenues. In brief, this technique, as the Case Study approach, determines the total number of additional employees by service function (financial administration, general control, police, fire, highways, sewerage, sanitation, water supply, parks and recreation, and libraries*) that will be required as the result of growth. The Service Standard approach is most useful in communities where the existing service capacity is closely related to existing service demand so that there exists neither considerable excess or deficient capacity. A fundamental assumption of the Service Standard approach is that, over the long run average existing service levels for both manpower and capital facilities of comparable cities can be used to assign costs to future development. The Service Standard approach may be employed by a modestly sophisticated user who has had an average amount of experience with fiscal impact analysis.
