Hi, Cathye,

Our maintenance is going up slightly (about 4%) because the city council is increasing property taxes 7%, electricity will be going up as much as 10%, and with few apartment sales we are earning only a tiny bit from flip taxes. On top of that, inflation in 2008 is at about 3.5%.

One of any board's salient responsibilities is to keep the business running in the black. That way your investment remains valuable (for a different way of running a business, Google "Lehman Brothers" or "AIG").

Investors look for sound businesses when they want to invest money and get a decent return. That holds true whether they're investing in Citibank (a bad decision) or a co-op (a good decision, at least in the case of the one I live in).

Remember, a co-op is like any other business: it buys goods (utilities, fuel, paint), hires employees (super, property manager, accountant), and faces uncertainty (will the city council raise taxes again?). All of those costs change with inflation. And by "change" I mean "increase."

Any corporation, whether it's a car maker or a co-op, that doesn't budget wisely for increased costs is bound to fail. (If you're not convinced, Google "GM.") A co-op that doesn't raise maintenance fees to match its costs either has a tremendous sum in reserves and lives off the interest (think: Park Avenue) or needs a new board, one that isn't afraid to face reality even when shareholders are.