The 2026 Budget - Coming Your Way Soon

How does the Budget for the HOA get put together?

There are rules for the Budget preparation in the Covenants and in the Procedures Reference Manual (PRM). You might find interesting reading in the PRM at Art. III, §C, ¶4(a-l) (Page 17).

The proposed budget is supposed to be built from the bottom up; i.e., the Expense Budget is developed first. Allowances should be made for new items and for changes (often, increases) in existing items. 

An appropriate, suitable, or reasonable Contribution is to be included for Reserves. 

Once the amount to operate the HOA (the Expense Budget) is known, then the Budget sub-committee and the Finance Committee know how much the HOA needs to collect. That amount, divided by 2,480, becomes the Assessment for the following year for each property.

And that's when the Board panics and says, "No way!" That's what must have happened in the Fall of 2024, because the Board rejected a dues increase. They did that in private, where the Members never learned of it.

The Board should have considered the Proposed 2025 Budget in public at the November 2024 Board Meeting. Had it done so and rejected a dues increase in public, then the Voting Members and the Members should have demanded answers to questions about what would be cut out of the budget. Instead, that was done in private, secret, closed meetings.

That resulted in large draw-downs on Reserves and large unbudgeted expenditures every month, which are reported as Variances on the monthly financial reports and never questioned by anyone. Well, questioned by one person, a resident, who is persona non grata by the majority of the Board. Me. Gus Philpott.

Perhaps, to reduce their suffering from GP Derangement Syndrome, in the future I'll just be referred to as "png".