As a recent retiree, I am interested in purchasing a home in Sun City West (SCW). I am a SCW Associate Member. (As an Associate, I pay the same rec card fees as “real” members, but I cannot vote.) As a potential buyer, I have been reading newspaper articles about SCW’s proceedings with ardent interest.
Regarding the recent proposal for a rec card fee increase, I note that a lot of people seem to think that this proposed increase in our rec card fee is directly related to golf. If recent Independent’s “Letters to the Editor” are any indication, then many, many people in SCW seem to believe that the rec card fee increase will go straight toward maintaining and operating our several golf courses. According to the letters, they believe the fee increase will go to nothing else but golf. Many think that we should “shut down” a golf course or two…
Interestingly, I have not heard anyone say anything at all about the proposed SCW employee wage increase. Did that little detail escape everyone’s notice? The Independent reported that the SCW board is currently proposing that the rec card fees should be raised 3%. In the same article, it was reported that the SCW board members are also proposing themselves and other SCW employees’ a wage increase of 3%. Coincidence? I think not. It seems to me that golf is being used as a ploy to misdirect our resident’s attention on this matter.
Apparently, from what I am reading in our local papers, the SCW powers-that-be can simply vote themselves a raise with no input from those of us who are in fact paying their wages. Sounds a bit like our US Congress or Senate… I’m not happy with this.
As a retiree, I have never received a 3% annual increase in my pension. So, I must ask: where is my additional 3% rec card fee supposed to come from? If I pay SCW an extra 3%, it means I have to reduce my spending in other areas by 3%. So, I guess I’ll have to cut back on golf.
Meanwhile, I suppose that I will not purchase a home here in Sun City West after all. I am NOT happy with the proposed raise in rec card dues in order to fund wage increases. I am NOT happy with the $240.00 “rec card transfer” fee. Seriously, this is a rather high fee to cancel the previous homeowners’ rec card and print another for the new owner.
I am also NOT happy with the $3100.00 required for so-called “capital improvement fee” that I would have to pay in order to call Sun City West “home.” I’m not sure what my $3100.00 would be improving, given that the home is already built on a site that has already been approved by the county. I have a sneaking suspicion that my “improvement” fee would somehow end up improving the thickness of our SCW board members’ wallets.
Oh, and by the way, I am a golfer and I am female. I fit the profile that was alluded to in several recent Independent articles. I’d love to buy here, but the way SCW costs keep rising, I guess I just cannot. My pension can’t keep up with SCW demands.
Bottom line: Whoever is making the rules in Sun City West has simply priced me out.
S Morgan