The Columbia Association proposed a $33.4 million 1995-1996 operating budget yesterday that maintains the planned community's current property levy, creates a few new programs, increases salaries 4 percent and raises rates for recreational memberships.
The nonprofit association also released a $6 million capital budget proposal that includes $1.4 million to buy land and develop a recreational vehicle storage facility to help residents comply with covenants.
CA President Padraic Kennedy said the spending proposals reflect the desires of the 10-member Columbia Council, the association's elected board of directors. The association charges Columbia property owners an annual fee to run recreational facilities and community services and maintain parkland.
"I think it's a thoughtful, prudent budget," said Mr. Kennedy. "It continues the services, achieves the deficit-reduction goal and does not have large increases in rates at facilities or in the assessment at all."
The fiscal 1996 spending plan marks a 5.4 percent increase over this year's $31.7 million CA budget and a 34 percent increase over the budget of five years ago.
The budget calls for a 13.7 percent rate increase, from $546 to $621, for families joining Package Plan, a membership in a wide range of recreational clubs.
Family memberships for Columbia's 23 outdoor pools -- including new ones opening this spring in River Hill and Long Reach Village's Kendall Ridge neighborhood -- would increase to $244 from $240, or 1.7 percent.
The CA's proposed annual property levy remains at 73 cents per $100 of assessed value, which comes to $365 for a $100,000 home and $730 for a $200,000 home. Assessments are based on 50 percent of the property's value; state and county assessments are based on 40 percent of the value.
Proposed new programs include midnight basketball at Columbia schools for high school students and young adults and a sailing camp.
The budget proposal also includes $93,000 for the committee that enforces Columbia's property covenants, more than double the $40,000 spent in the three year period from fiscal 1991 to 1993. The CA sent more cases to court in the last year than ever before.
Several council members said they hadn't reviewed the budget and couldn't comment on specifics. But two members said they were interested in finding ways to reduce the property levy.
"I'd love to be able to go through it and find savings," said council Vice Chairman David W. Berson of River Hill Village. Mr. Berson said he supported a proposal made by Councilman Michael Rethman of Hickory Ridge Village during a work session to ask the CA staff to prepare an alternative budget with a moderate decrease in the levy. The council rejected that idea.
Councilman Chuck Rees of Kings Contrivance Village, the council's most vocal proponent of reducing the levy, said, "It's not going to happen unless residents come out in force."
The Alliance for a Better Columbia, a 7-year-old citizens watchdog group, will urge the association to find savings and re-evaluate programs that serve relatively few residents, said the group's president, Alex Hekimian.
He said the group is particularly concerned about the CA's rising administrative costs and debt, which has increased from $81 million to $86 million over the last two years.
"We're looking for CA to become more efficient, reduce administrative costs and give taxpayers a break," Mr. Hekimian said. "We just don't want to see the bureaucracy increase as much as it has over the years."
Other community leaders say they are pleased with the association's services and don't see a need to press for changes.
"I think everybody on the Village Board and in the community seem to be happy with what they're getting from CA," said William Thies Jr., chairman of the Dorsey's Search Village Board. "I don't think CA will hear a whole lot from the Dorsey's Search board on the budget."
Andy Stack, the Owen Brown Village Board chairman, said residents' main concern seems to be avoiding cuts that would diminish parkland maintenance. The time may not be right for a decrease in the property levy, he said, because the CA still is reducing an operating budget deficit it rolled up in its first 20 years.
The association wants to use its projected $2.4 million surplus to reduce its total debt from capital projects and an accumulated operating budget deficit.
The operating deficit -- an estimated $14 million by April of 1996 -- grew in the mid-1980s when the CA's spending outpaced its expenses. But it has been reduced in recent years as Columbia has grown and its recreational facilities have drawn more paying members.
The CA staff will present the budget to the council at its meeting 8 p.m. Thursday. A public hearing is scheduled for Jan. 31 at Kahler Hall in Harper's Choice Village.
COLUMBIA ASSOCIATION BUDGET
Proposed fiscal 1996 budget; figures in millions (000).
.......... ......... Fiscal '95 ... Proposed .... % Change
?3 .......... ....... ............ ... Fiscal '96
INCOME ...... ......... $33.7 ........ $35.7 ........ +5.9%
Property levy .......... 17.1 ........ $17.7 ......... +3.5
Memberships ............. 8.5 .......... 9.1 ......... +7.1
EXPENSES ...... ....... $31.7 ........ $33.4 ......... +5.4%
division
Membership services .... 13.7 ......... 14.6 ......... +6.6
Open space management ... 6.6 .......... 7.0 ......... +6.1
Community services* ..... 6.3 .......... 6.5 ......... +3.2
Administrative services.. 2.7 .......... 2.9 ......... +7.4
Other ........ .......... 2.4 .......... 2.4 .......... 0.0
SURPLUS (Deficit reduction) $2.0 ...... $2.4 ........ +20.0
CAPITAL BUDGET ......... $5.8 ......... $6.0 ......... +3.4
ASSESSMENT RATE
(Per $100 assessed value) 73 cents ..... 73 cents
RATE CAP ................ 75 cents ..... 75 cents
LEVY PER $100,000 VALUE.. $365 ......... $365
*Includes village association grants
SOURCE: Columbia Association