1 The Desirability of Conducting a Cost/Benefit Assessment of the Sacramento Area Water Forum and its Successor Element and a Prospectus on How to Do It * Robert W. Wassmer, Ph.D.** Professor Department of Public Policy and Administration California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) Sacramento, California 95819-6081 rwassme@csus.edu (916) 278-6304 http://www.csus.edu/indiv/w/wassmerr/ August 11, 2005 *Support for this project was received through a Hewlett Capacity Building Grant from the Center for Collaborative Policy (CCP) which is a joint program of CSUS, the McGeorge School of Law, and the University of Pacific. This report would not have been possible without the much appreciated input and encouragement of David Booher, Susan Davidson, Sarah Foley, William Leach, Jim McCormick, Jonas Minton, Susan Sherry, Buzz Wiesenfeld, and Leo Winternitz. **With the valuable research and writing assistance of the following CSUS Master’s in Public Policy and Administration Students in my PPA 220B (Applied Economic Analysis II) course in the spring of 2005: Lisa Achen, Michael Applegarth, Danell Brewster, Sonia Campos, Deann Cavagnaro, Melissa Cheever, Beth Curda, Meghann Eklund, Melissa Escobedo, Tamar Foster, Emily Franciskovich, Robert Gregg, Fred Heacock, Andrea Jones, Camron King, Sheilla Kolla, Dawn Sanders Koepke, Ken Lowman, Jennifer Matsumoto, Alexandra Miller, Pam Martin, Jean Maries Nera, Jessica Nobles, Zack Olmstead, Shauna, Pellman, Jessica Riggs, Ana Rodriguez, Tonia Walton Simon, Derk Symons, Amber Twitchell, Traci Verardo, Maya Wallace, Lucinda Winward, and Mao Yang.