Special Gate & Police Taxes

The Board of Directors has asked us to seek your guidance and input on increasing the Special Police and Gate taxes by presenting you with a poll. 

We ask that you read all of the material presented here and ask any questions you have. This will allow us to address your concerns and ensure that the information presented is as complete as possible. 

Before the July Board meeting, we will publish the poll and publicize it as widely as possible. The results of the poll, plus all of your comments, will be presented to the Board of Directors.

The primary revenue source for the General Fund, which is the home for the Police and Gate budgets, is property tax revenue.

From the outset, neither the Police tax nor the gate tax fully funded their departments. The General Fund has filled the shortfalls, but this practice is both unsustainable and it negatively impacts the District's ability to obtain infrastructure bonds. 

The core of "why?"

Given that Special Tax revenues do not increase, yet expenses increase and are outpacing the increase in property taxes, the General Fund will soon not be able to keep up with the cost. The police and gate are currently draining the General Fund's reserve. The reserve fund, which is presently over $1million, will fall below the required minimum within seven years. Within 12 years, the General fund will fall below the amount needed for normal operations. This is why we hope to address these structural deficits. 

Increasing the Police and Gate Special Taxes will stabilize the General Fund Reserves and better position the community to address infrastructure needs. The increases do not need to be significant. 

The articles below are an attempt to break complex information into bite-sized chunks. If you feel anything is missing, please reach out and allow us to fill in the gaps.

The Gate Special Tax was implemented in 2006 and remains unchanged.The Police Special Tax was implemented in 1996 and remains unchanged. 

Financial modeling shows that General Fund Reserve will fall below balance requirements within seven years and below operational requirements within 12 years.