Origin Revenue Sources for Infrastructure Funding: Case Study for Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Issue 1 (January 2017) - Terry, Jacob
Cities require well-funded public infrastructure to function efficiently, but knowledge of public finance mechanisms among residents and decision makers may be deficient. This paper presents a thorough investigation of infrastructure funding flows to increase understanding, to catalyze further investigation in other jurisdictions, and to identify best practices. By using data from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, funding was mapped for the four tiers of government—federal, provincial, regional, and municipal—contributing to infrastructure. The results demonstrate that significant opacity exists around municipal reserve funds and intergovernmental transfers because insufficient recording is associated with the origin revenues of these funds: where moneys first enter the government cycle. To compare across infrastructure systems, funding from each tier was used to find an average revenue share and estimated per capita funding per source for the water system and three transportation systems: auto, transit, and active transportation. Water infrastructure was funded through six origin revenue sources, with user fees and development charges funding 95% of expenditures. For transportation infrastructure, the auto system was funded through 16 origin revenue sources, transit through 13, and active transportation through seven. The auto and active transportation systems were 75% funded through mixtures of property tax, user fees, and development charges. The transit system received significant contributions from nonregional revenue sources because of capital projects developed in the study period. Active transportation, water, and parking expenditures are shown to use effective revenue sources, while transit and other auto expenditures used less effective sources because of the wide range of origin revenue sources.