The major portion of the budget is devoted to operating expenses. These are the day to day costs of running Wildewood Springs and include items such as insurance, cable tv, utilities, administration, grounds and landscaping maintenance, pool maintenance and water/sewer.
Many owners have expressed concern about the rise in maintenance fees since 2000. David White, the budget committee chairman has provided an informative analysis to explain the reason for the rise in fees over the past 8 1/2 years using historical expense information supplied by Dennis Bucher, our Property Manager. In a nutshell, uncontrolled costs have risen from being 40% of our operating budget to 55% of our operating budget. Remember, uncontrolled costs are the big ticket items of insurance, utilities and services (water, gas, sewer, trash, electric), and cable tv. These are items where the rates and terms are dictated by a municipality or a single service provider (i.e. insurance) and we have little control over the charges.
Insurance cost alone has risen 818% (yes, you read that correctly!) since 2000, from a low of $65,384 to the current cost of $535,037 and comprises 24% of our operating budget. In other words, roughly one quarter of each dollar paid in maintenance fees goes toward paying our insurance bill. Remember, the bulk of our insurance is provided by Citizen's Insurance, the Florida State Insurance Provider. Citizen's Insurance is our only insurance option because no other insurance carrier will insure a community as large as WWS.
On the other hand, our controlled expenses tell a better story. Controlled expenses are the items Dennis Bucher, our Property Manager, and the BOD manage directly. Examples of controlled expenses are: administration and office expense, grounds and landscaping, building maintenance, pool maintenance. These items have been well managed with an increase of approximately 2.8% annually since 2000. That's less than the rate of inflation for the period.
The presentation is available at the link below and also on the President's blog on the right column.
2010 Budget Presentation 9/15/2009
The next budget committee meeting is scheduled for Saturday, September 26th at 10AM. Location to be announced.
The preliminary budget as presented shows an average decrease in maintenance fees of over 7% for 2010. A large portion of that decrease is a result of the change in reserve accounting that is being proposed by the Budget Committee.
