The Annual Budget is your Association’s plan for the services it has to provide for that year, the estimated cost, and how it intends to pay for those services. Since the Association’s primary source of income is the monthly assessments collected from its members, there is a direct relationship between the quantity, quality, and cost of those services, and the monthly assessment. The Association can be thought of as a middleman in this process; outflow and inflow must balance, and when service costs increase, the Board has only three choices: eliminate the service (often not an option, such as with insurance), reduce the service level (only plow snow if it exceeds 4”, which would make most owners quite unhappy), or increase the monthly assessments to cover the increased cost.
Unlike politicians who may tell you that someone else is going to pay for the cost of government services, that is not an option for the Association!