2012 BUDGET MAINTENANCE FEE TO REMAIN AT CURRENT LEVEL
At its September 20th meeting, your Board of Directors developed the budget for 2012. As in years past, the approach taken was to first review all of the previous year’s costs and the anticipated changes that are expected to occur in each cost category for the coming year and then to project the income required to meet these expenses. In addition, the Board has a fiscal responsibility to set aside some money each year for the capital reserve account which is required to fund major future expenses that cannot be reasonably included in a single year’s operating budget. The table below gives the breakdown for each cost and income category followed by a pie chart illustrating pictorially how the maintenance fees are spent. This data together with that for the previous four years is also shown in the Budget section of the Association website www.WSMAonline.org where you can review it at any time. The major change in the 2012 budget from that of the previous year is that for the reasons discussed in last month’s newsletter, we had to set aside considerably more money to address the maintenance and renovation of our ageing perimeter fence. The challenge over the next few years is to accomplish this while minimizing increases to our annual maintenance assessment, especially at times like these when many residents are having difficulty in stretching their incomes to meet their current commitments. We were fortunate in that at the beginning of 2011, we transferred responsibility for our security patrol from the Constable’s Office to off-duty officers from the Sheriff’s Department. Our experience to date with this new arrangement has been very positive and even though we are forecasting additional patrol hours for next year, we are still able to realize a significant cost saving which can contribute to funding the fence project. Although partly offset by inflationary increases in other areas, additional funds for the project were also freed up by a reduced forecast of the cost of operating our pool. Taking all these issues into consideration, we were able to assign sufficient funds for the first year of the fence project and still produce a balanced budget for 2012. At the budget meeting, there was also a discussion of trying to reduce operating costs further by offering our service providers guaranteed three-year contacts if they are prepared to offer lower prices for such an arrangement. This will be explored as the various contracts come up for renewal. The Board is committed to containing costs without compromising the services that our residents expect, and is also continuing to pursue the collection of delinquent accounts to ensure that the cost of maintaining our subdivision is fairly shared by all residents.
Published by: Krenek Printing 7102 Glen Chase Ct • Houston, TX 77095 • 281-463-8649
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