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Worksheet Grade 11 Social Studies & Civics

Who Pays for Runoff: The Brindmoor Stormwater Fee Appeals

Students compute impervious-area stormwater charges for a fictional city, then judge whether the charge is a fee or a tax and whether its credit changes behavior.

Objectives

  1. Students will calculate stormwater charges from impervious area using a stated billing unit.
  2. Students will distinguish a service fee from a general tax using the criteria a hearing board applies.
  3. Students will judge whether a rate credit is large enough to change an owner's investment decision.

Vocabulary

Impervious surface
An impervious surface is any hard surface, like a road, roof, or parking lot, that rain cannot soak through. The more impervious surface a town has, the more stormwater rushes off it.
Enterprise fund
A separate money account a city keeps for its water system. Water bill payments go in, water system costs come out, and the money is not mixed with other city spending.

Also: equivalent residential unit, credit, assessment appeal

Teacher overview

The city of Brindmoor, a fictional city, has replaced its property-tax-funded drainage program with a stormwater utility that bills every parcel by the amount of hard surface on it. Two property owners have appealed, and students must both run the billing arithmetic and rule on the legal question the appeals raise. The misconception this worksheet is built to correct is the student assumption that anything a government charges is a tax. A charge tied to a measured service and spent only on that service is treated as a fee, which is why the distinction decides who must approve it and who may be exempt from it.

Who Pays for Runoff: The Brindmoor Stormwater Fee Appeals — Grade 11 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

The ordinance (fictional). Brindmoor bills stormwater by the equivalent residential unit, or ERU. One ERU equals 2,800 square feet of hard surface such as roof, pavement, or packed gravel. The monthly charge is $5.50 per ERU. Every single-family home is billed a flat one ERU no matter how large its roof and driveway are. Every other parcel is billed by measured hard surface, divided by 2,800 and rounded to the nearest whole ERU. Money collected goes into a separate account and may be spent only on drainage work.

The credit (fictional). A non-residential owner who builds a basin that holds the first inch of runoff from the parcel earns a 40 percent reduction in the monthly charge, renewed each year after an inspection.

The appeals (fictional). Brindmoor Christian Academy has 42,000 square feet of hard surface. It pays no property tax and argues that the charge is a tax by another name, so it should be exempt. Halstock Market has 89,600 square feet of hard surface, most of it parking, and argues that its bill should be based on store floor area instead. A homeowner has filed in support of the market.

Program totals (fictional). Brindmoor bills 8,200 residential ERUs and 6,300 non-residential ERUs. The drainage program the council adopted costs $1,150,000 a year to run.

  1. Brindmoor Christian Academy has 42,000 square feet of hard surface, and one ERU equals 2,800 square feet. How many ERUs is the Academy billed?
  2. At $5.50 per ERU per month, what is the Academy's monthly charge?
  3. Halstock Market has 89,600 square feet of hard surface, and one ERU equals 2,800 square feet. At $5.50 per ERU per month, what is the market's monthly charge?
  4. A single-family home is billed a flat one ERU at $5.50 per month. What does that home pay in a full year?
  5. The Academy's annual charge is 12 times its monthly charge. How many times larger is the Academy's annual charge than the home's annual charge from item 4?
  6. The Academy builds a retention basin and earns the 40 percent credit. What is its new monthly charge?
  7. How much does the Academy save in a full year with the 40 percent credit?
  8. The basin cost $12,000 to build. Using your answer to item 7, how many years of credit does it take to repay that cost?
  9. Using your answer to item 8, explain whether the credit is large enough to change what a property owner decides to build.
  10. Brindmoor bills 8,200 residential ERUs and 6,300 non-residential ERUs at $5.50 per ERU per month. What does the utility collect in a year?
  11. The adopted drainage program costs $1,150,000 a year. Using your answer to item 10, how large is the annual gap?
  12. Brindmoor's board applies one standard: a charge is a fee if it is measured by the service the payer receives and is spent only on that service. Apply that standard to the Academy's appeal and state your ruling.
  13. Halstock Market argues for billing by store floor area instead of hard surface. Explain why the ordinance uses hard surface, and state one fair objection the market can still make.
  14. The flat one-ERU charge for every home is simpler to administer than measuring each roof. Explain what the city gives up by choosing that simplicity.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: 15 ERUs. 42,000 divided by 2,800 equals 15 exactly, so no rounding is needed.
  2. Answer: $82.50 per month. 15 ERUs times $5.50 equals $82.50.
  3. Answer: $176.00 per month. 89,600 divided by 2,800 equals 32 ERUs, and 32 times $5.50 equals $176.00.
  4. Answer: $66.00 per year. One ERU at $5.50 per month times 12 months equals $66.00.
  5. Answer: 15 times. The Academy pays $82.50 times 12, or $990.00 a year, and $990.00 divided by $66.00 equals 15. This is the same ratio as the ERU count, because both parcels pay the same rate per ERU.
  6. Answer: $49.50 per month. A 40 percent reduction leaves 60 percent of $82.50, and 0.60 times $82.50 equals $49.50.
  7. Answer: $396.00 per year. The monthly saving is $82.50 minus $49.50, or $33.00, and $33.00 times 12 equals $396.00.
  8. Answer: 30 years (approximately). $12,000 divided by $396.00 equals 30.3 years, so the basin does not repay its cost for roughly three decades.
  9. Answer: No, the credit alone is too small to drive the decision. A payback period of about 30 years is longer than the useful life most owners plan around, so the credit rewards owners who would have built a basin anyway rather than persuading new ones. Accept a well-reasoned yes only if the student names an added factor, such as a building requirement or a grant.
  10. Answer: $957,000 per year. The two classes total 14,500 ERUs, 14,500 times $5.50 equals $79,750 a month, and $79,750 times 12 equals $957,000.
  11. Answer: $193,000 per year. $1,150,000 minus $957,000 equals $193,000, so the adopted program is not fully funded at the current rate.
  12. Answer: The charge is a fee, so the exemption fails. The bill is measured by the Academy's own hard surface, which is what sends runoff to the city system, and the money may be spent only on drainage. Tax exemption covers property taxes and does not reach a service charge.
  13. Answer: Hard surface causes the runoff, while floor area does not. A two-story store and a one-story store with the same footprint send the same water to the drains. The market's fair objection is that its lot drains partly to a basin or to another system, which is what the credit and the appeal process exist to correct.
  14. Answer: Precision and fairness among homes. A large house with a long driveway sends more runoff than a small cottage, yet both pay one ERU, so the flat charge overcharges small parcels and undercharges large ones in exchange for a cheaper billing system.

Differentiation

Support

Provide the first computation worked out in full, including the division and the multiplication, and give students a small table with columns for hard surface, ERUs, monthly charge, and annual charge to fill in for items 1 through 4. Provide the fee-or-tax standard on a separate card for item 12.

Extension

Have students redesign the residential charge as three tiers based on measured roof area, state what the city would need to measure, and explain which households would pay more and which would pay less under their design.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "impervious surface," "equivalent residential unit," "credit," and "appeal" with a labeled sketch of a parcel showing roof, driveway, and lawn. Allow students to answer items 12 and 13 orally to a partner before writing, and provide the frame "This charge is a ___ because it is measured by ___ and spent on ___."