President’s Column for October 2008

Click on Topics:
1.  Proposed Swim Facility
2. Monthly MUD Bills and Taxes Go Up Slightly

Proposed Swim Facility

Unless you have been out of the country or purposely avoiding MUD news, you know that the MUD is investigating the possibility of building and operating a swim facility in the Anderson Mill West Park on El Salido.

Towards that end, the District has directed its engineer to conduct a preliminary feasibility study about a pool in the Park as well as has contracted with a consultant (GMSA) to conduct two (2) facilitated workshops to try and obtain resident’s input about such a possibility (sic). An on-line survey, summarizing the results of the two (2) facilitated workshops, will then be posted on the District’s website for all residents to view. The District hopes to make a decision about a pool near the end of 2008.

Here are two (2) of the communication’s the consultant has issued to date:
 

• Methods of Input Information

• Excerpt of MUD newsletter Pool Article
   

The answers to the important questions have not been finalized but the questions that have arisen to date are:

•         What’s this going to cost me to build and operate?  How much will my taxes go up and what will the increases in monthly service fees (your MUD bill) be?  What will user fees be ?

•         What will this do to the Park as we know it today?

•           How will this affect my property’s value (e.g., will it go up because there is now a pool in the neighborhood, will it go down because my taxes are 25% higher than Cedar Park and Austin, etc.)

•          Are you crazy or why hasn’t a pool been built before now?

Some of these answers will come from the facilitated workshops but others are being tweaked with the aid of our engineer.

You may not plan to come to the facilitated workshops but, if you are here now, your input is important. Please, before you forget, tell us what you think by sending an email to the MUD, with the topic “pool” to wtcmud1@yahoo.com. All emails will be collected and given to GMSA.  

Check back to this website for more details as they become know. As always, you may email me at crocco@wtcmud1.com  or call me at 296-0081 and I will try and answer your questions/concerns.

Monthly MUD Bills and Taxes Go Up Slightly

Wednesday, October 1, most of the WTC MUD#1 residents got their monthly bill.  At the bottom of the bill was a “blurb” about rates going up starting the next billing cycle (your net bill).

At the District’s September regular Board meeting, your Board passed the budget for the ’08-’09 year. At that meeting, the Board decided to pass on the increase in wholesale water rates that our supplier, the City of Cedar Park, began charging us in July. Additionally, the Board decided that the District could no longer absorb half of the cost of the “per residence”  fire protection fee as it has done in the past.

Here is a summary of the monthly increases:

Summary of Monthly Increases

At the September meeting, the Board also passed a tax rate for the upcoming year that will result in the average resident seeing a something less than a 7% increase in the amount of taxes it pays annual (e.g., if you paid the MUD $1,408 in taxes last year, your 2008 taxes should be about $1507 or, about a $100 a year increase. 

That’s the details of the increase but here is the “back room” (actually, the front room because no residents came to talk about the budget…) “skinny” about how we came up with it:

Your Board has worked hard to ensure you are provided with the water, sewer, fire protection, parks, law enforcement, deed restriction enforcement, solid waste disposal and other miscellaneous services that you expect. While doing this in an efficient manner, we also ensure that we comply with all Federal, State and Local laws, rules and regulations required of us as the provider of those services.  We do all of this with the stated goal of doing so in an appropriate level of openness and transparency which includes documenting our work and communicating with you the resident.

Look at the approved budget (2008-2009 District Budget in PDF) as the documentation of the basis for the rate increase.  Hopefully, the only question that you might have is “where did you come up with the ‘revenues over expenses’ number (it’s a $151,000+ negative number…)?   It came from our attempt to try and “back-in” to the rate increase with an objective that the increase in monthly rates was not out of line to what residents of the City of Cedar Park pays (City of Cedar Park Rates).  Here, below is a brief comparison in a more reader-friendly format:

*  Cedar Park’s monthly basis fee includes the cost of the first 2,000 gallons of water, ours does not

Yes, their taxes are lower than ours (I am working on that section of the website…)but our tax rate will be going down in years to come and theirs will most likely go up.   I also think our trash service is better than theirs.

I welcome any questions, comments or concerns. Please email them to crocco@wtcmud1.com  or call me at 296-0081 (that is my personal cell and if it is not a “800” number, I will probably answer it…).