The Green Valley, Ariz., golf course closed indefinitely this summer, and had been paying $155,000 a year to the Green Valley Water District. The District is adding a $2.75 a month surcharge to residential bills to make up for the lost revenue, and will also add a $1,000 surcharge to the bills of its three other golf courses.
The Green Valley (Ariz.) Water District is adding a $2.75 a month surcharge to residential bills to make up for revenue lost after San Ignacio North Golf Course closed, the Green Valley (Ariz.) News reported.
A two-sentence notice sent to 5,000 customers in the Canoa Ranch area with the July water bills said the surcharge is intended to “offset the revenue loss associated with the closing of the San Ignacio – North Golf Course.” The charge begins this month, the News reported.
The district also will add a surcharge of $1,000 a month to the bills of its three other golf courses, Board Chairman Bob Hedden said. The August bills will be mailed out starting August 22, the News reported.
San Ignacio North, which closed indefinitely this summer, was paying $155,000 a year to the water district, a substantial portion of the district’s $2.2 million in annual revenues, the News reported.
The water board in October approved a surcharge of up to $3 after the two San Ignacio golf courses fell $90,000 behind on their bills. The board action approval gave the staff authority to put the surcharge into effect at a later date and Hedden said the closing of the golf course triggered the $2.75 surcharge, the News reported.
“I feel comfortable we have done everything we can to avoid to this. We cannot take $150,000 out of the budget. We’ve been carrying the same budget for the last three years, about $2.2 million,” Hedden said.
“We have a fixed budget and we need to have the revenue to fulfill our debt-ratio requirement associated with payment of our debts. In order to do that we have to prove we have a sufficient revenue stream to support it,” Hedden said.
About 40 percent of the budget goes to repay the bond issue, loans that allowed the district to purchase the business, and to buy mandated safety equipment. Twenty-five percent goes toward salaries, 15 percent for electricity to pump groundwater to the surface and eight percent for annual maintenance of the arsenic removal facility, the News reported.
Hedden has been fielding questions about the surcharge and is telling callers “this is not paying for any golf course water.” The golf courses are current on their recent water bills and the manager of the two San Ignacio courses, Green Valley Golf Holdings, is on time in making scheduled payments on the overdue bills, Hedden told the News.
The surcharge will cost the district’s other three golf courses, San Ignacio South, Canoa Ranch and Desert Hills, a combined total of $36,000 a year, and residential customers will pay about $119,000, Hedden said. The residential category includes homes, churches, Green Valley Recreation facilities and a handful of businesses, the News reported.
The managers of the golf course have said they expect San Ignacio North to re-open in two to five years. The surcharge will stay in effect as long as the golf course remains closed, Hedden said, adding that he has had no indication from the managers as to when they hope to re-open it, the News reported.
“I’m anticipating this won’t go away for a while,” Hedden said.
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