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Budget committee debates $22 dues bump, APF rise and revenue options to fund $6M master plan
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Summary
At the Feb. 17 Budget & Finance Committee meeting, staff presented a draft operating budget that proposes a $22 increase in annual dues (from $5.98 to $6.20) and an APF bump; the committee discussed multiple funding scenarios, including dues carve-outs, APF increases, operational revenue changes and project-timing adjustments to protect reserve health.
The Sun City West Budget & Finance Committee spent much of its Feb. 17 meeting parsing a draft operating budget and modeling options to fund a proposed community master plan.
Cliff Swan, who presented the financial package, said the draft budget includes a proposed $22 annual dues increase — taking dues from $5.98 to $6.20 — and a proposed rise in the asset preservation fee (APF) from $5,400 to $5,600. Swan said the combined changes would generate additional revenue the committee could direct into reserve accounts to help pay for master-plan work.
"We're proposing a $22 increase to go from $5.98 to $6.20," Swan said, and he showed models that tested several scenarios including a $10 annual carve‑out for master-plan funding and APF increases of $200–$300 to close multi‑year funding gaps.
The committee and residents pressed staff on alternatives that might reduce the need for larger dues or APF hikes. Committee member Chris (first name only in the record) urged the group to look at operational revenue, pointing to golf as an area that could contribute more. "I think golf could make a bigger contribution," Chris said, noting a $3 peak‑season increase for nonmembers and a $1 increase for members during November–April are modeled to generate material revenue.
Swan also flagged other operational moves in the draft budget intended to strengthen reserves: implementation of a selective credit‑card processing change to shift some membership transactions to ACH or a surcharge model, which he said could reduce credit‑card fees by about $300,000 annually, and modest rate tweaks in food and beverage and bowling.
Residents suggested additional revenue approaches. Don Esparza, a resident speaker, proposed modest charges for clubs that currently pay little or nothing, while another resident suggested converting one or two licenses from beer-and-wine to full liquor to increase food-and-beverage revenue. Swan said staff will analyze those ideas and their risk/cost implications (insurances, licensing).
Swan warned that injecting an additional $6 million in new master‑plan capital without offsetting revenue would reduce the fully funded balance (FFB) from modeled levels into the low‑to‑mid 30‑percent range by 2031. He presented stepwise options: a $10 dues carve‑out plus a $200 APF bump could raise the FFB to roughly the high 30s in modeling; larger, sustained increases would be needed to hold the FFB at 40% or higher over the period modeled.
Committee members also discussed non‑revenue levers: extending the timeline on major irrigation projects to smooth short‑term cash outflows, using time to spread costs, or employing a one‑time special assessment for specific projects. Swan said each approach has tradeoffs; pushing irrigation work postpones costs but does not eliminate them, while a special assessment imposes a large, immediate cost on owners.
Chair Anne Becknell asked committee members to consolidate technical questions and submit them to staff; the committee agreed that staff will aggregate responses and circulate them before the next meeting. The committee will return to the capital improvement recommendation at its March meeting, when members expect to vote on which items to forward to the governing board.
What’s next: staff will refine modeling, run extended horizon scenarios (committee members requested 10–20 year projections), and return with answers to aggregated questions and more detail on revenue options and project timing. The Budget & Finance Committee meets next on March 3.
