Work in progress. Answers are not yet authoritative
1.
Where does the money go?
a.
Pie chart
showing the percentages can be seen here. Roughly 80% of expenses go directly to providing service and maintance.
b.
Note that the largest expense is the “outflow”
payments to the Metropolitan Reclamation District. We cannot reasonably change
suppliers (the pipes go where they go). And any renegotiation would most likely
result in increased costs.
2.
How does this compare to other districts?
a.
Comparable Pie chart(s) to be determined
3.
Why not merge with a larger district for
savings?
a.
Based on the
experience of other districts, the likely procedure is dissolving one, and the
area becoming part of an existing District.
This entails considerable
administrative costs (exclusive of any infrastructure upgrades the new District
requires before joining),
between Court filings, elections, etc. costs upwards of $50,000 would be likely. The
new District owner could require extensive
upgrades …it is hard to forecast
what those might entail. In any event, the maximum savings per year possible would be about $10K.
4.
Why are our sewage fees taxes?
a.
In order to save residents money, instead of
having a separate “user fee” per household paid with after-tax monies, at the
inception
of the CHN development the decision was made to use pre-tax dollars.
In addition, using the County property tax system reduces
the overhead of
collecting and distributing funds.
5.
Why do we need to raise taxes?
a.
District expenses were significantly more than
revenues in 2007 and 2010. Annual District expenses have exceeded annual
revenues in each of 2011 – 2013, and the 2014 budget anticipates that total
expenses will again exceed annual revenue. The
expenses in 2007 and 2010
combined with the trend evident during 2011 – 2014 has resulted in a decrease
in the District’s cash
reserves, and increases the likelihood that the District
will not be able to respond appropriately to an emergency repair
situation.
The District needs to raise taxes in order: (1) to ensure that annual
revenue is enough to cover annual expenses; and (2) to
ensure that the District
is able to maintain an adequate reserve account.
If
voters approve a variable mill levy (allowing the District to increase and decrease the mill levy on an annual
basis based on
projected annual expenses), the Board will best be able to take
care of the sewer system and protect the neighborhood from any
emergency
expenditures.
6.
What happens if the District runs short of
funds?
a.
Failure to meet our financial obligations under
the “Intergovernmental Agreement” (viz.
paying for waste water processing)
would result in each and every resident
being billed directly (with pre-tax funds) by the Metropolitan Reclamation
District.
They would include any overhead and penalties.
b. Failure to do necessary preventative maintenance
or catastrophic maintenance could result in huge bills for residents nearest
any
damaged pipes.
7.
Other than raising taxes, what can be done to
close the gap?
a.
We could transition to a “user fee” levy. This
would not require approval of the voters, and would not involve elections to
make
adjustments (up or downwards) to the fee. However, the administrative
costs would go up, as residents our effective cost basis
would go up even
higher (post-tax vs pre-tax dollars).
8. Where can I find the District’s Service Plan
a. Despite many efforts to find the original document, it appears to have been lost. To clarify precisely what the District’s scope is, an Intergovernmental Agreement has been drafted and we expect to have it ratified by the Cherry Hills Village City Council in the next few months. Current Draft