When calculating revenue, how should a municipality account for losses related to individual third-party management agreements with entities such as stadiums, convention centers, and golf courses?

Many third-party management agreements may qualify as “revenue” in municipal revenue loss calculations. The definition of “general revenue” used by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s (“Treasury”) Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (“CSLFRF”) Final Rule is based largely on the components reported under “General Revenue from Own Sources” in the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances.[1]  

When calculating revenue loss, a municipality may consider including actual revenue loss from third-party management agreements together with their other general government revenues. The Final Rule adopts the following definition of “general revenue”:

Money that is received from tax revenue, current charges, and miscellaneous general revenue, excluding refunds and other correcting transactions and proceeds from issuance of debt or the sale of investments, agency or private trust institutions, and intergovernmental transfers from the Federal Government.[2]

For reference, “current charges” are defined as “charges imposed for providing current services or for the sale of products in connection with general government activities,” which include revenues from public education institutions, public hospitals, and tolls.[3] Moreover, “miscellaneous general revenue” includes “all other general revenue of governments from their own sources (i.e., other than utility and insurance trust revenue), including rents, royalties, lottery proceeds, and fines.”[4]

Treasury anticipates releasing updated Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) to provide additional guidance on the Final Rule. In the interim, CSLFRF recipients may refer to FAQ # 3.3, which states that the following types of revenue will be considered “gross revenue”:

• gross revenue of facilities operated by a government (swimming pools, recreational marinas and piers, golf courses, skating rinks, museums, zoos, etc.);
• auxiliary facilities in public recreation areas (camping areas, refreshment stands, gift shops, etc.);
• lease or use fees from stadiums, auditoriums, and community and convention centers; and
• rentals from concessions at such facilities.[5]

To ease administrative burden when calculating revenue loss, the Final Rule “offers a standard allowance for revenue loss of $10 million, allowing recipients to select between a standard amount of revenue loss or complete a full revenue loss calculation. Recipients that select the standard allowance may use that amount for government services” over the period of performance.[6]

Taking into consideration the current definition of general revenue provided by the Final Rule, the inclusion of the standard allowance, and the information provided by FAQs, it is likely that municipalities can account for revenue loss from third-party management arrangements as general revenue.