ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the basic contents or fields of the Parcel_Factor shapefile as it was used for Bloomington, IL. Bloomington’s Parcel_Factor shapefile was somewhat detailed due to complex issues with regard to the city’s finances and the size of the city, both in population and extent. There are many allocation factors that are easy to recognize, like population, employment or market value, but there are others that must be defined. The shapefile from the county or local surveyor provided the spatial basis for the analysis. The field SHAPE identifies the file as a shapefile. The attributes in the parcel file from the assessor provided the initial framework for the Geographic Information Systems database needed for Spatial Fiscal Impact Analysis. AREA is an automatic field provided in the shapefile. The GIS software allows this to be converted to the field ACRES. The Parcel_Factor shapefile was the basis upon which fiscal impact was calculated for Bloomington, IL.
