Issues that SID is Facing

Glad you asked and I will try my best to explain this as clear as I can.

Once this current assessment is satisfied, or paid off, meaning you pay off the total assessed against your lot, SID can not by law or legally just simply re-assess or keep Taxing your or my lot... that is an "Illegal Exaction" which is what triggered the 2018 Class Action Lawsuit and the 2022 Settlement which allowed them to use this assessment to get things fixed and up to par.

In order to perform a "Re-Assessment", SID would need to perform a Capital Improvement/s or build/purchase a new amenity then hire an assessor who assigns a value of the assessment to each lot, that is what you owe against the assessment, your slice of the pie if you will.  I tried to say that as easy as can be but there is legal jargon that's actually in the law that says this.  So once you are assessed, SID would then need to provide an Equalization Board Hearing of the Commissioners to hear any disagreements from lot (property) property owners before it becomes final and in effect.

They, SID Commissioners, could however reduce the levy applied each year to a lower rate.  This would be cause for amortization (for lack of words) and a new payoff date later down the road.

By law, they can charge up to 6% of that levy to interest and law says anything over must be applied to principal.  You have to understand also, that this current assessment has no loans to pay off.  Any future capital improvements would most likely require SID obtaining funding from a lender of sort.  Most folks, I do not belive, understand that any assessment where we end up owing money for would require a huge chunk of the Tax SID receives each year set aside for Loan Servicing, interest and saving for the End of Loan payoff.   

         
I guess you can use your HOME mortgage,  as an example.  SID collects taxes from us each year, SID then has to pay on the loan or set aside funds for the agreed loan terms of payments and payoff.  Like your mortgage, you pay so much for interest on the loan and so much to principal.  You set aside or have auto draft to pay your monthly loan bill, so should SID.  Like your mortgage, once you pay it off, the bank can not simply just start charging you again because they need more money or need money to support their payroll or because your neighbor did not pay their loan payment... as such, SID can not make us pay for the lots at state lands which isn't paying anything.... you get the gest.

 Let me explain why I have been saying, "there are three (3) ways for SID to go".  And as of yet, there has been no one prove financially or otherwise another way.

1.      They can do capital improvements to trigger a re-assessment.  Issue with this is that every lot, some 25,000 in the district, is assigned a portion of the debt incurred in the assessment to repay that debt plus any levy the commissioners impose on each year, remember I said they can only go to 10% which up to 6% can be interest and the rest (4% if they levy 10% each year) is principal.            
         Second issue is because over half of the lots within the district meant to pay their part of the assessment is sitting at state lands commission for non-payment of Taxes.            Because these lots are not paying is not legal grounds to come back to the ones who paid and are paying their Taxes and say "Hey, we need more money to repay the loan so we are extending YOUR Taxes until we can.  Again, Illegal Exaction!            This leads to my final question on this option.... What lending institution would knowingly give SID money for projects when it knows over half of the lots that figure in the repayment system isn't going to pay one red cent and will probably have back SID Taxes forgiven or reduced.  So exactly how do we repay the lender when the terms of the loan comes due?
2.      Commissioners can drop the yearly levy to 6% and unless you go into the office and pay off your debt against the  assessment, you will pay a yearly Tax for ever.           
        The Problem I see with this is, a 6% levy each year will not pay for the upkeep of any of the amenities.  As we have seen over the past 4 years, we still don't have enough funding to address everything... still have not seen a lake stocked and the big money has all gone to the golf courses.  Well, maybe one each year which i seriously doubt as after you factor in operating costs, Employees costs, Insurance, Electric, Water, Garbage.. you know all the things needed in running a business, there wont be much left over to do any serious maintenance..... God forbid a irrigation system goes down again at a golf course or the State comes and makes us fix the "High Risk" dams on each of the 7 lakes.  By the way, yes, all 7 of the lakes has leaking levies.          
         Again, factor in the reason of item 1 above and we simply have no funds!
3.         Last but not least, Unless someone can show me a Legal, Financially Sound and Responsible way to continue our SID in its current form or even as a POA, I feel that it is best for SID to use these last 10 to 12 years fixing and upgrading our amenities to prepare to convey  everything to the City.            
         Yes, of course the City would need to start planning right now work out ideas of how they are going to fund all this.  
         My thoughts is that they would need to create a Parks and Rec District, appoint commissioners and set a Tax rate that each property is to pay.  It will not be a whole lot different than what we currently have under SID, just that it would have oversight and controlled by the City Parks and Rec District and City Council, who by the way can apply and get grants for our amenities that SID can not.          
         Having the City own all this is not this community loosing "Community Identity" as suggest.  This is an avenue that allow us to keep the community going in the manner it is, and quite possible benefiting us citizens by being able to use this to grow our community.  It would just be under one governmental roof. that is or has state oversight to keep everything on the up and up unlike SID who hires their auditor and has no real oversight by the county, city, or state.              
         Y'all have to understand that SID's were never meant to be a forever ongoing system unless it operates as intended and I feel ours does not.  That is, go in debt to create or purchase an amenity then end then go into debt again, purchase or build/improve an amenity, pay off the debt and end. It would be a never ending cycle.            
         You also need to understand that a working SID should not be 25,000 lots and parcels.  SID's are better suited for smaller communities where all lots are paying their Taxes, which ours does not even get half of the lots to pay.            Even though a City would not get over half the Taxes for the same reasons of being at State Lands Commission for non-payment of Taxes, EVERY Tax Paying property would contribute equally.  There would no longer be those "Reserved Properties" owned by select individuals not paying SID Tax as well as those properties left out of the District Boundaries such as Coopers Point and Los Indio's.  There would not be any more favoritisms and hoodwinking the taxpayers by not paying.  If they don't pay the taxes, they get sold on the County Court House Steps just like everyone else.