Greetings Polo Ranch Community,
This email serves to update members of this community regarding decisions made by the Board of Directors pertaining to the 2023 annual budget.
Our financial goal is to maintain fiscal conservatism and ensure that our association has the ability to manage our necessary expenses. The members of the HOA Board met with Rachel Schmutz (Community Solutions) to discuss all line items on our balance sheet so we can meet our goals.
Our main source of income has been from owner assessment fees, paid at the beginning of the year, and capitalization fees, paid to the association when homes are sold. The capitalization fees have been a major source of income as the community has grown, however, closings within the community are expected to decline vastly after this year and annual assessments will be our main source of income.
Based on our existing annual assessment amount, our income for 2023 is projected to be approximately $573,000. Our expenses for 2023 include categories such as landscaping, utilities, pool, administrative fees, maintenance, lakes, legal, taxes, events/decor, and reserves. As our neighborhood has grown so have our expenses with our greatest expense being landscaping which is projected at $298,000. The total of all expenses is projected to be $627,000. This creates a loss of $54,000.
Due to inflation, we are required to increase our assessment fee so that we can pay our expenses without going negative. The Board of Directors has unanimously decided to raise the 2023 by ten percent. This $65 increase will raise the assessment fee to $740 and our projected income will be $627,000, the same as our projected expenses.
We believe it is crucial to have a reserve fund for financial security when unforeseen events occur, such as the 2021 freeze which required significant funds to repair irrigation equipment and landscaping. Correspondingly, we have decided to move $100,000 from our operating account to start a reserve for the future.
We hope that the information provided in this update effectively substantiates the decision we have made to increase the assessment fee and start a reserve fund. If you have any
questions feel free to email us at:
Respectfully,
Pete, Anthony, and Danielle
