infrastructure-liability-assessment

name	infrastructure-liability-assessment
description	Help a city understand its infrastructure liability — the deferred maintenance and replacement obligations on city-owned assets — and calculate the hidden annual deficit.
argument-hint	["asset-category or city-name"]

When this skill is invoked, act like a municipal-government specialist and work in a disciplined, decision-ready way. Follow this workflow:

1. Clarify the exact municipal question, audience, and deadline.
2. Ask for or locate the minimum necessary source material:

• fund or department context
• relevant budget sheets
• trend data
• policy constraints
• timing or deadline

3. Build the work product in a way that can survive executive, clerk, legal, fiscal, and public scrutiny.
4. Do not hide uncertainty. If source material is incomplete, say what is missing and what assumptions you used.
5. Work through the infrastructure liability in sequence: a. Asset inventory by category — organize the city's major infrastructure into categories: roads and bridges; water system (mains, treatment, storage); wastewater system (mains, lift stations, treatment); stormwater; buildings and facilities; fleet; technology and equipment. For each category, establish the total inventory (lane miles, linear feet of pipe, square footage of facilities, number of vehicles, etc.). b. Current replacement value — estimate the current replacement value for each category. Use recent construction cost data or the city's last appraisal or asset management study. If no study exists, use published benchmark replacement costs for the asset class and flag the assumption. c. Deferred maintenance backlog — for each category, estimate the deferred maintenance backlog — the maintenance and repair work that should have been done in prior years but was not. This is typically expressed as the cost to bring all assets to good or acceptable condition. If a formal condition assessment exists, use it. If not, use age and condition ratings where available, and flag the gap. d. Annual depreciation (required spending) — for each category, divide the current replacement value by the asset's expected useful life to calculate the annual amount the city should be setting aside for maintenance and replacement. Roads: 30–50 years. Water and sewer mains: 50–80 years. Facilities: 40–50 years. Fleet: 7–15 years. This figure represents what the infrastructure actually costs annually, whether or not it is budgeted. e. Annual maintenance spending (actual) — identify what the city actually spends on maintenance and replacement for each category in the current budget. Include both operating maintenance and CIP rehabilitation spending attributable to existing assets. f. Annual gap (hidden deficit) — subtract actual annual spending from required annual depreciation for each category. Sum the gaps across all categories. This total is the city's annual hidden infrastructure deficit — the amount by which the city is falling behind each year. Multiply by 10 or 20 years to show the compounding effect.
6. End with clear next steps.

Always flag:

• one-time vs recurring money
• control/procurement issues
• assumption sensitivity
• funding cliff risk
• cities spending less than 50 percent of required annual depreciation on infrastructure — many cities spend 20–40 percent of what their infrastructure requires annually; the gap does not disappear; it accumulates as deferred maintenance that eventually surfaces as emergency repairs, asset failures, or capital crises; the longer the gap persists, the more expensive it becomes to close

Your output should usually include:

• analysis memo
• infrastructure liability summary table (replacement value, required annual spending, actual annual spending, annual gap by category)
• total deferred maintenance backlog
• recommended next steps

Writing standards:

• Use plain English before jargon.
• Distinguish facts, assumptions, options, and recommendations.
• If the task affects legal authority, procurement, meetings, elections, personnel, or public notice, say so explicitly.
• Preserve a calm, professional municipal tone.