Team

Mr. Taussig has over 45 years of experience in the fields of real estate finance and urban economics. His areas of expertise include municipal finance programs for infrastructure and public facilities development, fiscal and economic impact analyses, and land development project feasibility studies.

His involvement in public finance began in the mid-1970s when he worked on financing community development and affordable housing projects for the County of Alameda in California. He moved to Mission Viejo Company (“MVC”) in 1979, where he handled multi-family and single-family tax-exempt housing revenue bonds and Assessment District (“AD”) and water/sewer revenue bond financing for two major planned communities being developed by the company. Notably, these two communities have now been incorporated as the Cities of Mission Viejo and Aliso Viejo in Orange County, California. During this period, Mr. Taussig was involved in the legislative efforts that led to the adoption of the Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act in 1982 and he later established the second and third Community Facilities Districts (“CFDs”) in the State of California.

Since founding DTA in 1985, Mr. Taussig has developed dozens of state-of-the-art analytical methods and modeling approaches and personally directed the formation of over 1,000 public financing districts and subsequent sale of tax-exempt municipal bonds. These districts have funded public infrastructure and services for many types of residential and non-residential development and included several hundred master-planned communities built throughout California and in several other western states. Mr. Taussig’s work has involved both the preparation and implementation of financing plans and his public sector clients have included virtually every major urban county and city within California and hundreds of special districts. He has provided similar consulting services to many of the largest land development firms in the State. The financing programs implemented by Mr. Taussig have ranged from land-secured CFDs and ADs to redevelopment tax-increment programs and lease revenue-based Certificates of Participation. He is also responsible for DTA’s successful efforts related to funding opportunities through Federal and state grant programs and various tax credit programs.

Mr. Taussig has also overseen the preparation of numerous feasibility and impact studies involving computerized analyses of project cash flows and/or impacts on public agencies and landowners. This has included several hundred fiscal impact analyses that have evaluated the municipal revenues generated by a land development project as compared with the costs to a municipality of providing public services to that project. He has also prepared dozens of Economic Impact Reports to determine the direct, indirect, and induced employment and economic benefits generated by new development. In addition, Mr. Taussig has established and implemented Development Impact Fee (“DIF”) programs and affordable housing programs for numerous public agencies.

Perhaps Mr. Taussig’s greatest strength is his vast experience with public financing in California. Having worked over 45 years in the industry, he is familiar with the evolution of public financing from the years prior to the approval of Proposition 13 by the State of California’s voters through today. Mr. Taussig is still closely involved in cutting-edge solutions to public financing issues ranging from large, complex CFDs, such as the Great Park project in Irvine, to the sale of pool bonds for the California Statewide Community Infrastructure Program (“SCIP”) and use of New Markets Tax Credits (“NMTCs”) for non-residential development.

Prior to establishing his own firm, Mr. Taussig was the Director of Finance for Gfeller Development Company, where he handled all take-out and construction financing for the company’s residential projects and infrastructure. He was previously employed for 6 years by MVC where, as the Manager of Housing and Community Development, he was involved in the planning and public financing for two planned communities encompassing over 50,000 homes. Prior to that, he worked for 5 years in the public sector as the Administrator of a Federal housing and community development program and a Land Use Planner. Mr. Taussig’s educational background includes a Master’s Degree in City Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. in Economics from Cornell University. He is a Registered Investment Advisor and also qualified for full member status with the American Institute of Certified Planners in 1982. Mr. Taussig is currently an active member of the Urban Land Institute’s (“ULI’s”) national Public-Private Partnership Council.

Mr. Taussig has attained a Series 54 license as a Principal Municipal Advisor and Series 50 license as a Municipal Advisor under regulations promulgated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (“MSRB”).