Lakewood Ranch CDDs adopt budgets

Lakewood Ranch CDDs 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 adopted their 2013-14 Fiscal Year budgets today.

All the CDDs will see their assessments go up.

In general, increased assessments resulted from costs associated with construction of Town Hall’s new maintenance facility and paying a higher rate to Braden River Utilities for irrigation.

CDD 6 residents will see the biggest increase in assessments, with homeowners paying 26.9% more than in Fiscal Year 2013.

Town Hall Chief Financial Officer Steve Zielinski’s budget for CDD 6 uses no fund balance — reserves — to mitigate the increased assessments. He warned of the district’s potential inability to obtain future financing unless it saves more money for the future.

“I would be insane to recommend to the board to use any reserves for the 2014 budget,” Zielinski said.

Zielinski projects CDD 6 to have only $120,900 in reserves by Sept. 30, 2013, compared to $829,200 for CDD 1.

The 2014 Fiscal Year budget takes effect Oct. 1 of this year.

See a breakdown of each CDDs budget in the Aug. 22 issue of the East County Observer.

Contact Josh Siegel at [email protected].