Tax-Crazy Board Does It Again!

David Berman and Don Manning falsely stated on the Berman blog this week: ‘Bob Frank stated that he thinks owners have been overcharged on their Association assessments, adding that he thought fees of $720 per year would be appropriate. Finance Committee Chair Don Manning, who had presented a summary of the 2010 budgets, expressed disagreement with Frank’s assertion. ‘We can’t run Sun City Anthem on $720 a year,’ Manning said, adding that he’d like Bob Frank to show him how it could be done.”

My comments were referring to the facts that the Board/Finance Committee could not justify the $960 annual assessment for 2010 because:
1. SCA has accumulated a huge surplus even though it only collected $720 dues in 2009,
2. SCA has accumulated a huge surplus even though it only collected $860 dues in 2008, and
3. SCA has continued to hold on to over $4 Million in multi-year surplus dues/assessments. The board’s “stash” is OUR money that has been overcharged and not returned to the members as required by statutes and IRS rules.

If most of those surplus funds are not used to cut dues to around $820 in 2010, SCA will have to pay heavy corporate income taxes on the “profits”. Why are we being overcharged dues–only to become vulnerable to wasting money on paying unnecessary income taxes, fines and penalties?

My position while serving as a board member, and now as a unit owner, is that SCA’s financial history proves the SCA boards have illegally:
1. Overcharged dues by more than $100 per unit per year for many years,
2. Violating statutes and IRS rules by refusing to return the accumulated surpluses to members,
3. Abandoned millions owed by the developer at transition time, and
4. Wasted/lost hundreds of thousands of dollars using unsatisfactory contracting practices since 2005.

All of those gross failures will cost unit owners dearly in the future. We are the only source of funds when those losses have to be made up. Does this remind you of what the federal government is doing to us and our children?

Contrary to Berman’s and Manning’s false claims, I have demonstrated that the 2010 assessment could be around $820. That would sustain the $720 level collected in 2009, and it would also allow a generous extra $100 for the brand new Liberty Center–which is a small facility and supposed to be “super-efficient”.

SCA’s history clearly substantiates my numbers. Those who disagree should have to do more than just stand on their self-proclaimed CPA and committee credentials and prove that dues/assessments can not be set to $820 while maintaining our overall superior service levels.

Meanwhile, we do not need to hear any more bragging about SCA’s “good financial management” when they are constantly rolling in huge surpluses gained from illegally overcharging assessments and retaining the surpluses. Anyone could look good on the surface when the money is being taxed and spent as if it was the federal government in charge.

We must demand high quality RESULTS for our hard-earned money. We must elect directors and select committee members who can be trusted to serve the best interests of unit owners in the future. And, when they fail, they should be removed to make room for better people.

This entry was posted on November 22, 2009 at 18:19 and is filed under Truth Squad, Ann_Small, SCA Board, Community Affairs, Laws & Rules, Operations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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