HOA's only get money from the owners

There appears to be a real issue saying an association needs to do XYZ but then also trying to limit an association from being able to raise and or collect funds to perform those tasks. All of these tasks cost money and running an association costs money. The local government has stopped building parks, stopped building pools. They expect an association to have these amenities and to maintain them, but then are trying to limit the association's ability to manage these.

Regardless whether a special assessment or regular assessment is issued the only way an association gets money currently is from the owners. You could require developers to provide x amount of dollars prior to turnover. However, that is also only going to come from the owners as the developer will simply increase the costs of homes to pass on the cost.

The association cannot be responsible for people's personal finances. If we want to make sure people can afford their homes including the association costs we need to look at lending practices and actually make sure that a person can afford the house they live in. Whether that means increasing DTI requirements, requiring an upfront escrow to cover a certain amount of years of assessments that can be refunded at closing if it is never used etc...

Ultimately though it seems we are trying to punish or force an association to try to handle social economic issues that are not within the control of an association.