At its meeting on January 25, 2016, the PTCA Board will adopt a budget for the coming fiscal year, which runs from March, 2016 through February, 2017.

In recent weeks, the Budget and Finance Committee has held five meetings with Management to review the 2016/17 proposed budget. As a result of those meetings, we are recommending some changes to the proposed budget originally submitted by Management.

We have scheduled two dates to review our recommended changes with the Board of Directors. These meetings will be held on November 30 and, if needed, December 7.  Both meetings will start at 6:30 pm, will be held in the party room, and are open to all owners.

Several years ago we made a commitment to the owners to keep our assessment increases as low as possible, but no more than 3.5%.  Over the years, we have been able to honor that commitment while still completing major repair projects such as sealing the curtain wall, replacing the terrazzo, revamping the circular drive, remodeling the front lobby, completing plumbing projects in the lobby area,  and continuing to replace the hot water risers. All this in addition to  meeting our day-to-day operating expenses.

Our overall goal has been to get the reserve balance up to $4,000,000.  We are not there yet. In fact, we expect to end the current year with a reserve balance of approximately $1,700,000.  Park Tower is in very good financial shape, but we have not yet reached our goal.

So, what does that mean for next year, 2016/17?  Well, we expect to spend approximately $1,200,000 in capital projects, which include riser work, remodeling the health club (with some  equipment), work on the kiddy pool and residential unit hot water heaters.

Also, our reserve study will be three years old in 2017 and needs to be updated.  The funds for this update are included as part of the reserve project expenses for 2016/2017. The update is necessary to ensure we are on target to meet our goal and that our reserves are properly funded.

In addition, we will continue to meet our day-to-day expenses and are recommending an increase to the assessments of no more than 3.5%.

With that increase, we anticipate our reserve balance to be nearly $2,000,000 by the end of next year.

When we reach that $2,000,000 reserve balance, we will be at the half-way mark of our desired level.  With a lot of hard work from our management team to keep expenditures in line, and with no more than a 3.5% increase in assessments over the years, we will reach our goal of $4,000,000 in the reserves by year 2021/22.

Seems like a long time, but before we hit that year, we will have completed multiple years of reserve projects in excess of $1,000,000 while having met our day-to –day monetary needs.  Yes, Park Tower’s finances are in pretty good shape and we will work to keep our financial position sound.

Since this article was prepared prior to the B&F Committee meetings with  the Board, the final, planned budget for 2016/17 may change. However, we do not anticipate an assessment increase larger than 3.5%.