Not all of the money spent on golf drainage is depreciable, only a small percentage as I understand it. Grading of the ground and seeding, etc. is not depreciable, and probably makes up the bulk of the costs. Culvert pipes probably are.

How about asking management for a complete breakdown on all the individual items making up the depreciation of $450,000 or so for golf in the last audited statement. Might be interesting, and should be public information.

A better example to ask Gene might be what happens to the $1 million in new golf greens in terms of depreciation. Up until now OPA never depreciated greens, thus our assessment never included depreciation for greens. Now, based on some new review of GAP or IRS regs and the advice of Pete Gomsak, as I recall, OPA will depreciate that $1 million, and thus our assessment will include that depreciation. I suspect the greens depreciation is in the just approved budget.

My take, assuming the area became open space, is that there would be no greens depreciation since they would no longer be golf course greens but open space, and land alone is not depreciable. Having said that, any four board members will do what they choose.

Interestingly, Art Carmine  told me OPA is adding depreciation to the assessment for the entire cost of the covered pool, even though about $500,000 was financed. I seem to recall Gene saying if a structure is financed then depreciation collection should not begin on any financed amount immediately upon completion of the project.