Funding Challenges within Benefit Zone 6
The landscape maintenance funding in Benefit Zone 6 (Central Elk Grove) is currently funded at an unsustainable level. Relatively low assessment rates (PDF) Opens a New Window. were established in this benefit zone at its inception in 1997, and since that time the only increases have been the annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustment. The CPI adjustments have ranged from 0.5 - 2.5% in the past five years, and they have not kept pace with rising material and service costs.
Asset Replacement
Sustainable benefit zones collect enough funds to pay for ongoing maintenance costs, while simultaneously building a reserve fund to pay for long-term asset replacement, such as: playgrounds, picnic tables and plants. Because the assessment collected in Benefit Zone 6 cannot adequately fund both routine maintenance and reserve fund contributions, all non-essential asset replacement projects have been suspended until additional funding can be secured.
History
Funding challenges in Benefit Zone 6 are not new. In 2009, property owners were given an opportunity to approve higher assessments in order to offset landscape maintenance funding shortages. At that time, the proposed ballot measure was rejected.
In November 2017, Cosumnes CSD conducted a survey among all property owners in Benefit Zone 6 to determine whether they would support an assessment increase. The survey results were well below the minimum threshold needed for approval. As a result, Cosumnes CSD decided to not proceed with a Proposition 218 vote-by-mail ballot procedure.