FIELD is currently designed to simulate the fiscal impacts of growth projected in Hillsborough County under alternative policy scenarios and in the context of various comprehensive plans, including Hillsborough County and the cities of Plant City, Tampa, and Temple Terrace.

Before proceeding to the instructions, please read the following caveats carefully.

Caveats:

1. FIELD is not intended as a forecasting tool, and its results should not be taken to portray actual outcomes.

2. FIELD does not currently consider the presence of surplus infrastructure capacity or existing deficiencies.

3. Budgetary impacts on existing development of changing levels of service and tax revenues, e.g., lowering the ad valorem millage rate, are not presently calculated by FIELD.

4. The budgets and fiscal conditions for Plant City, Tampa, and Temple Terrace are not included in this initial version of the FIELD Model.

5. Spatial location and patterns of development are not fully modeled in this initial version of FIELD.

6. The statistical accuracy of fiscal impact models is not quantifiable. However, the sensitivity of FIELD to changes in various assumptions can be measured. The degree of confidence in FIELD becomes a factor of the confidence in the underlying assumptions and the sensitivity of FIELD to those assumptions.

7. It may be possible to validate FIELD's analytical predictions by subsequent experience; however, unrelated policy changes, economic shifts, and natural disasters may significantly alter actual outcomes and make validation of a fiscal impact model very difficult.