The Park Tower Budget, which begins March 1, 2016, has now been completed and approved by the Board of Directors at the meeting held on January 25, 2016. This budget contains a 3.5% increase in our assessments; an increase to our cable bill which will now be $43.18 per unit; a contribution to our reserves of $1,472,900; capital expenditures of $1,182,600; and the elimination of the construction fee.

The assessment increase is in line with what the Budget and Finance Committee has recommended to the homeowners over the last several years. Our intention is to keep assessment increases to no more than 3.5%, while increasing our contribution to the reserves and still meeting our day to day expenditures. Our goal is to have a reserve balance of $4,000,000. This is a challenge, but one the Budget and Finance Committee is committed to.

The review of the budget started in late September when Management presented the proposed budget to the Budget and Finance Committee. The  Committee held four meetings with Management to review each and every line included in the budget. Every expense was questioned. Every increase in income was reviewed. New ideas for income were suggested.

Once this process was completed, the Budget and Finance Committee presented the changes to the proposed budget they were recommending to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors sent the final draft of the proposed budget to the homeowners for their review on December 22th. A special meeting of the homeowners and the Board of Directors to discuss the proposed budget was held on January 11, 2016.

At the January 11 meeting, there were approximately 30 owners present.  Owners asked question such as ..

·  What was included in the accounts?
·  How were the amounts arrived at?
·  Were expenses reviewed and trimmed as much as a possible?
·  Were other ideas for revenue that did not impact the owners discussed?

The questions continued for about an hour and were both informative and provocative. Once all questions were addressed and answered, the Board adjourned this special meeting of the homeowners to review the proposed budget for 2016-17.

The next step in the long process to arrive at a budget for the next fiscal year was to hold a meeting of the Board of Directors to approve the proposed budget. This meeting was called on January 25, 2016 at which the proposed budget for the new fiscal year was formally adopted.