HPP Road fees

[Bonnie Lee]

Can someone give me the history of why the road fee seems to go up 10 % each year. Most of all will that high increase have a ceiling.

Bonnie Lee

[Youser]

No ceiling, they go up 10% a year, so every year the increase hurts that much more. Not sure when or if they will stop or decrease the increase.

[mdd7000]

[url][/url]http://punaweb.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12042

That link will give you a start.

All subdivisions, with private roads, should have input as to how their fuel tax money is spent.

[Carey]

The HPP website has some of the info you are looking for, look under the road ref FAQ's;
http://www.hppoa.com/

[macuu222]

It started out a long time ago (25 years ago) with about $50.00 a year road fees. This year it's $238.00. That's not such a bad increase in 25 years. But with a 10 million dollar loan that was used to pave roads...and another 10 million available for more paved roads...It's not a far fetched notion that this 10% yearly increase will get bigger to help pay off the debt. I predict in 10 years that yearly road fees will be in the $1500- to $2000 a year range.

[JerryCarr]

The 10% per annum increase is the maximum allowable under state law, and the $12M road bond is the main reason for the continuing increases. We could argue about whether that loan was wise or not (I think not,) but the money is being spent, and it's too late to change it. Some projections were made at a meeting I attended, and they indicated that the increase could fall off the maximum after 2013, or perhaps even stop. We'll see about that.

Meanwhile, this is a good time to remind HPP residents that failure to educate oneself and participate in the elections, meetings, and other processes of the Association is unwise. Some ballot initiatives get fewer than 10% returns. At a recent General Membership Meeting, those in attendance came within one or two votes of limiting the annual increases to 5%. In the last Board election, some Board members were elected with roughly 100 votes out of a possible 900 in their district. Apathy can bite you in the behind.

Edited for spelling.

[mikewj]

My understanding is that road fee increases are limited to a maximum of 10% per year without a vote of the membership. At that rate, with an annual 10% increase, the fees will reach $617.31 at the end of 10 years.
Using the 'rule of 78' and an annual increase of 10%, the fee doubles every 7.8 years, so to reach $1500 will take about 20 years.
That said, it is not impossible that the Association will attempt to apply a special assessment on property owners some time in the future to partially alleviate the mind boggling level of debt that has been incurred to pay for roads.
Our best hope is that 1. we get some money from the RFT to help out, or 2. the County take over the roads.

[mikewj]

Jerry:
Sorry for the duplication - I guess you were posting while I was writing!

[Rob Tucker]

I don't live in HPP but HPP issues are certainly appropriate on Punaweb.

As an outside observer though I believe that HPPOA fell into a trap that was not of their own making. At the time of the $12 million bond paving costs were about $80,000 per mile and paving all roads in HPP was doable. Not too long after that a huge ramp up in the cost of oil ran paving costs up to about $240,000 per mile. A real dilemma. Hindsight is 20/20.

[Seeb]

The ever increasing fees are hard to swallow when you’re on a road thats not going to get paved, and the dust from the road when its dry makes your kids cough till they puke