Sen. Kane’s Proposed Condominium Budget Legislation Advances [Waterbury Republican-American]

Article as it appeared in the Waterbury Republican-American on May 28, 2013

A bill that would change how Heritage Village and other common ownership communities adopt their budgets has cleared its first hurdle in Hartford. The state House has passed legislation proposed by Rep. Arthur J. O’Neill, R-Southbury, and Sen. Robert J. Kane, R-Watertown. The bill now moves to the Senate.

Under current law, condominium budgets must be approved by a majority of all unit owners to pass, regardless of whether people actually vote. All unreturned ballots are considered “yes” votes.

The bill proposed by O’Neill and Kane would count only the ballots that are cast, the way most towns adopt their budgets. It would prevent situations like what happened in the village in 2011, when owners voted 1,192-594 to reject the budget. The village has 2,580 units. Because a majority of owners — in this case 1,291 — did not vote “no” on the budget, the spending plan passed.

The bill would require that the number of votes to reject a budget exceed one-third of the total unit owners. That, O’Neill and Kane have said, would prevent small and unrepresentative minorities from blocking adoption of the budget.

If a condominium budget is rejected, the last approved budget would continue until unit owners approve a new budget. Heritage Village is the state’s largest age-restricted community, with more than 4,000 residents. Its annual operating budget is $16 million, more than many towns in Connecticut.

The bill does have its detractors. Terry Sullivan, a village resident and trustee for the Heritage Village Master Association Foundation, worries about the long-term impact on property values of people voting down a budget just to keep their maintenance fees down. He said much thought and effort goes into developing a budget both by condominium managers and residents who sit on community associations. “The budget does not get developed easily, and it shouldn’t be rejected easily,” Sullivan said at a recent forum on the bill in Southbury.

O’Neill, who acknowledged that most condominium managers oppose the legislation, said people need to be trusted to make prudent decisions on how their maintenance fees will be spent.

“I believe the people who live in Heritage Village … will vote intelligently for what is in their own interests,” he said. “Ultimately, I trust the judgment of the people in Southbury and Heritage Village to make the right decisions when they have time to evaluate it.”

This is the second year O’Neill and Kane have proposed the condominium budget bill. Last year, a similar bill stalled when it reached Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s desk. Malloy vetoed it, saying that while he agreed the unreturned ballot provision was unfair, protections for unit owners were watered down in the final bill.