Midyear budget changes

Revising the budget is a motion, not a mystery

Adopting a budget is a motion. Amending one midyear is the same motion, moved and voted on by the same board that adopted the original. Most governing documents designate a parliamentary authority, usually Robert's Rules of Order, to run that vote, and its default is a simple majority of the votes cast at a meeting with a quorum present, not a majority of the whole board and not a majority of the membership.

"The word 'majority' in this context means, simply, more than half."

Source: Frequently Asked Questions, The Robert's Rules Association

Check your own bylaws before assuming this default applies. Some documents raise the threshold for a budget amendment to a supermajority, or require the vote to happen at a specific type of meeting.

Where the extra money comes from is capped, even midyear

A vote to amend the budget does not by itself authorize an assessment increase. Most states cap how far a board can raise assessments without a separate membership vote, and that cap applies to a midyear increase exactly as it applies to the original budget.

California allows a board to raise the regular assessment up to 20 percent over the prior year's regular assessment, and to impose special assessments totaling up to 5 percent of the year's budgeted expenses, without a membership vote. Check your own state's common interest community statute and your governing documents for the number that actually applies to your association.

"the board may not impose a regular assessment that is more than 20 percent greater than the regular assessment for the association's preceding fiscal year or impose special assessments which in the aggregate exceed 5 percent of the budgeted gross expenses"

Source: California Civil Code Section 5605, State of California

A shortfall is not automatically an emergency

Some boards reach for an emergency assessment to cover a midyear gap. Where a state recognizes one, it is not a general fix for running over budget. It is reserved for narrow grounds: a court order, an expense needed to address a threat to personal safety, or an extraordinary cost nobody could reasonably have foreseen when the budget was adopted.

California requires the board to adopt a written resolution documenting which of those grounds applies and why the cost was not foreseeable, before it can levy the assessment. Other states set their own emergency assessment rules, or none at all, so confirm what your state and governing documents actually allow. A shortfall caused by ordinary underbudgeting does not meet California's bar, and treating every midyear gap as an emergency invites exactly the challenge those findings requirements exist to prevent.