By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities
Should this really come as a surprise?
After all, local municipalities and counties have been pushing developers toward Association Governed Housing for 4 or 5 decades. In some states, all new development of more than a dozen or two homes is required to establish a homeowners association. City governments just love condominiums because they are able to assess property taxes to each unit separately.
And yet, for all the additional property tax revenue generated by Association Governed Housing, there is no additional value to property owners (or even corporate owners in cooperatives) in terms of government services. Each Association is responsible for much of its own infrastructure maintenance and internal security and emergency services.
Hundreds of thousands of mandatory associations – little islands in a sea of unincorporated land. When a homeowner or resident gets into a dispute with the Association, experiences hardship due to poor or nonexistent maintenance of common areas, or suspects the board or manager is self-dealing or engaging in criminal activity, local and state authorities routinely tell them, “you’re on your own. Sue them if you must.”
So it’s hard to get taxpayers to care about the public interest and serving non-HOA constituents when their own basic rights and needs go unmet.
Gibbs: Tax hikes are tough sell in cities full of HOAs
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/surprise-contributor/2016/06/07/gibbs-tax-hikes-tough-sell-cities-full-hoas/85480702/Also see George Staropoli on the subject
https://pvtgov.wordpress.com/2016/06/07/should-hoas-support-the-greater-municipal-community/
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