The Board, Finance Committee and Management spend a considerable amount of time during the fall working on the budget for the next year. As an HOA we are expected to balance income with expenses without excess or loss at the end of the year.

We are continuing to work hard to manage costs in our budget for the next year. This has been made difficult because of increasing inflation and supply chain disruptions. Three areas where costs have increased significantly in the Tahoe Basin are insurance, cost of labor and utilities.

Over the last number of years our insurance costs have increased dramatically. Our insurance costs have increased from $133,000 in 2016 to an estimated $1,125,000 in 2022. We had hoped that the effort to change the CC&R’s insurance requirements would reduce the cost of insurance. Unfortunately, it did not. We reduced our overall insurance coverage from $125 Million to $75 Million for the coming year. The cost of the $75 Million will be slightly higher than we paid last year. We believe that this is predominantly due the Calder Fire in South Lake Tahoe.

As a result of the continuing high cost of insurance and our other increasing costs, the Board has voted to increase the quarterly dues to $4,050.

The Board is also every concerned about fire safety and forest management. The day before the Board Meeting, a group of us walked the property with two fire prevention officers from the local fire department. They pointed out a number of areas of concern in our forest.

We know we cannot take care of all of the issues immediately, but in order to begin the process of making our property more fire safe, we have also voted to have an assessment. The assessment will be $800 per unit and the funds will all be used to reduce the risk of fire on the property.  This assessment will be due April 1, 2022.

Our CPA’s are completing our annual budget documents now and they will be completed before the end of the year for your review.

I would like to wish you all a very Happy Holiday Season. Many of you will be coming to Chinquapin over the Holiday Season. If you would like to cut your own tree at Chinquapin, you can call Aiden Miles at WMC and he will show you where there are saplings that need to be removed for forest thinning.

-Steve Giacomi