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Resident assessment fees paid to the Montgomery Village Foundation will not increase next year, as Village leaders wrestle with tight economic realities while searching for new revenue streams to gird looming renovations and long-term capital priorities.

With one dissenting vote, the Montgomery Village Foundation's nine-member board of directors approved the fee levels Thursday as part of a $7.6 million budget for 2010, which also will put more than $700,000 into reserves.

The budget takes effect Jan. 1. It cuts $142,000, or 1.8 percent, from this year's budget, which was 8.6 percent lower than the $8.4 million budget for 2008. Roughly $125,000 in savings came by not giving the foundation's 60 employees raises next year.

Independent of assessments paid to homeowners associations and condominium associations in Montgomery Village, the foundation levies two fees on residents. The "MVF" fee, which funds parks maintenance, operations and administration, will cost homeowners $242.16 next year. The "Designated Users" fee, paid by the two-thirds of homeowners who use the foundation's pools and tennis courts, will come to $287.28. The fees bring the foundation more than $5 million a year, by far its largest revenue source.

Foundation leaders pared back expenses while promising not to reduce community services.

The move comes amid unprecedented financial challenges for the foundation, a 501(c)4 nonprofit that maintains green space in Montgomery Village and acts as a sort of umbrella association for the Village's 11 HOAs, 10 condo associations and four apartment complexes.

The foundation's next hurdle comes in a proposal to impose a "capital transfer fee" when any of the village's 11,000 homes are sold, to be used only on long-term capital projects. As proposed, the fee would cost one-tenth of 1 percent of a home's worth — so that a $500,000 home would have a $500 fee. That is expected to generate more than $100,000 per year for the next three years and nearly $200,000 after that.

That comes on the heels of a "transfer fee" the foundation began charging in 2008 for documents needed any time a home changes hands. That fee can come to as much as $200.

Montgomery Village leaders have been hammering out a plan for sustaining the health of long-range facilities and boosting amenities. The committee's ideas have included an indoor swimming pool, a health center, wireless Internet access at foundation facilities, a dog park, garden plots and a farmer's market, Humpton said.

Doing so would require the foundation's by-laws to be amended. On Thursday, the board sent the issue for a special vote by representatives of Montgomery Village's two dozen communities.

Humpton wants a work session with those representatives and the board, which would bring the vote in January.

Part of the problem is that government funding has dried up. With indications coming from Annapolis that there may be no state bonds at all next year, the foundation is scrambling to find other revenue streams, Humpton said.