Impact DataSource helps economic development organizations, cities and other governments make wise decisions on incentives. We recommend communities conduct an economic and fiscal impact analysis to estimate the value of the proposed project and base the incentive amount on the net benefits the city or county will receive from the proposed project. The community should calculate a rate of return and payback period for the proposed incentive or various incentive levels to make sure the incentive proposal is both reasonable and competitive. A city should view the incentive as an investment in the proposed project and the net benefits to the city as the return on that investment.
Learn more about our methodology and tools in the video below.
