Good afternoon residents,
Your HOA Board wants to provide answers to the most frequently asked questions about the proposed budget.
Our budgeted dues for 2020 were actually $281, not $273.
It was only because of a surplus from 2019 that we were able to reduce the dues for 2020 by $8 per household. Making the amount we paid $273.
With the COVID shutdown we lost significant income: Shadows restaurant closed, no fitness classes, and no golf revenue. Given the COVID issues it is possible for at least the remainder of this year, there will be very few Canadians here to play golf further compounding the problem.
What did we do to reduce our expenses?
- We furloughed as many employees as possible.
- We reduced maintenance as much as possible.
- We reduced maintenance of the golf courses. (The result was many complaints about the condition of both courses when they were re-opened.)
But the golf courses, sport courts, pools, and facilities do need to be maintained. You can’t just let the golf course die, pools need to be kept clean, landscaping still needs work, and all this still takes staffing. So, we are not able to cut all staff if we want to maintain the facilities, and the cost of staffing even at a minimal level increases costs more than the income shortfall.
Consequently, there is an increase in costs during a shutdown, not a savings in costs.
Initially we thought there might be a loss of $300K - $400K. Our actual loss for 2020 has been contained to $48,000. This is amazing considering the loss of income.
Inflation is about 1%. There is a mandatory increase in minimum wage of 8% for 2021.
Our contracts with our landscaping, golf and security companies have increased because they are faced with those minimum wage increases as well.
There was an increase in expenses for all the additional signage and for the purchase of sanitizing products due to COVID.
Carey Thompson did a great job of working with Troon to reduce their management fees.
We sincerely believe that our financials are the best around. We have an amazing team of Carey Thompson, Treasurer; Tyler Ingle, Controller; Bill Wethe and the Financial Advisory Committee; and DRM, our management company, who brings extensive financial experience and significant software to track every expense.
The bottom line is this:
- 2020 Actual Dues are $281
- 2021 Proposed Dues are $294
- This is a $13 or 4.6% increase if the Board were to pass the proposed budget.
Again, this sounds worse than it is because people forget that dues in 2020 were reduced by $8 due to the 2019 surplus and we add the $12 for Frontier on top of the 2021 dues to make it $306. Residents will be saving money on the cable bills which will offset the cost of Frontier internet.
70% of residents voted in favor of the Frontier contract to save money, and so far, reports from those installed have said the savings is about $40-$60 per month. Given these facts, for 70% of the residents, the estimated net monthly dues cost because of the HOA Frontier contract savings means $306 minus $40 (cable savings) or a net monthly cost of $266. To be fair, you need to subtract the savings of the Frontier installation from your monthly dues rate to get to your effective net cost on monthly HOA dues. For 70% of the residents your effective monthly dues rate might go down next year.
Monday the Board will vote on the proposed budget. If you have comments, suggestions, or changes on the proposed budget please let us know.
Let us know if you have further comments or suggestions before Monday’s Board meeting. You can review the draft budget online at:
☞ www.scshca.com/budget-worksheets
We hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Your HOA Board