How to pay for investigating the feasibility of a stormwater utility is foremost on communities’ minds.   As mentioned in more detail in our fee basics section, the most common method of funding the planning and investigatory work to create a stormwater utility is to front the cost from the local budget and reimburse it after the utility is operational. New Jersey’s enabling legislation specifically provides that the fees collected from a stormwater utility may be used to recover the cost of the initial establishment of the utility.  While this method is the most common, it presents difficulties to some localities who do not have the required degree of budget flexibility. 

Embedded below is a searchable database of potential funding sources that could help offset  these costs.  Many of these funding sources cover costs for investigating a stormwater utility or for implementing related projects, but not both.  For example, certain sources will fund planning work, and others will fund capital projects related to setting up the utility.  When reviewing this database, it’s important to keep in mind exactly the type of project that your community is seeking to fund.  For a static database version of the chart, you can click on “download CSV” on the bottom of the table.