Shortage of $2.5 million would be balanced by surpluses in 2007, 2008
By Mary Frances Schjonberg, October 22, 2008
[Episcopal News Service] [Helena, Montana] The Episcopal Church's Executive Council heard October 22 that the church's 2009 budget, if council members approve it, will have a $2.5 million deficit.
However, Treasurer Kurt Barnes told council members that the entire 2007-2009 triennial budget will be balanced, as required by the Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons. There were surpluses of $1.2 million in 2007 and $2 million in 2008, Barnes said.
Projections for the 2009 budget anticipate $54.6 million in revenues compared to $57.1 million in expenses. Barnes said that, given the triennial nature of the budget and the previous surpluses, the 2009 budget "could suffer a deficit of $2.8 million" and still be balanced.
The resulting $300,000 difference will be available for two major contingencies as proposed by the council's Administration and Finance (A&F) committee, Barnes said. They include $225,000 for possible use for performance-based compensation of the Episcopal Church Center staff and $87,000 to cover a potential further decline in the value of the church's endowment funds, from which the annual budget takes a five percent draw.
The value of those funds has decreased by 30 percent this year, according to Barnes, because of the turmoil in global financial markets. Every 5 percent decline in the value of the endowments equals $87,000 less revenue for the budget, he said.
A&F chair Josephine Hicks told the council that senior staff at the denominational office in New York had volunteered to take a pay freeze in 2009. "A&F did not want to do that," Hicks said, because the committee members felt it was unfair to attempt to balance the budget "on the backs" of the staff.
The 2009 revenue projection also includes what Barnes said he hoped was a "conservative enough" estimate that diocesan assessment payments will be flat. Those payments in 2008 were $31 million, exactly matching earlier projections, Barnes said.
Canon I.4.6 of the Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons, which outlines the budget process, requires General Convention to set the formula for diocesan assessments.
Resolution D079 from the 75th General Convention in June 2006 set the assessment at 21% of diocesan income after a $100,000 exemption from total income, based on the year two years prior to the one to which the pledge is applied. The asking has not changed from the flat rate of 21% since the 72nd General Convention in 1997.
Included in the proposed 2009 budget is $600,000 for legal support to dioceses and expenses for Title IV disciplinary actions. Any costs above that amount will have to be taken from the church's short-term reserves, Barnes said, noting that because of previous commitments made for $5.4 million of the $6.5 million in reserve, there is $1.1 million available that could be used for those expenses. Those previous commitments include a recent dedication of $2.4 million for the effort to relocate the Archives of the Episcopal Church and a 10-year-old promise to reserve $3 million for future pension enhancements for lay employees at church center.
In 2008, the council budgeted $450,000 for legal expenses but $1.97 million was spent. The difference was taken from short-term reserves as the council had directed when it passed the budget.
"We don’t know what the [2009] legal expenses will be in excess of what we're estimating right now," Barnes told council members.
Council members heard the budget presentation during the third day of its four-day meeting in Helena, the seat of the Diocese of Montana. They will vote on the 2009 budget on October 23. Information about the current triennial budget is available here.
The Executive Council began its four-day meeting October 20 with a full day of committee meetings of its four standing committees: A&F, Congregations in Ministry (CIM), National Concerns (NAC) and International Concerns (INC). The committees met for a short time on the 21st and had their final meeting of this council session during the morning of October 22. All committees will offer resolutions on a variety of issues to the entire council during the closing plenary sessions on the 23rd.
Council also heard a report by retired Diocese of Arkansas Bishop Larry Maze on the continuing effort to relocate and expand the work of the Archives. Maze described that expansion as "a new center for the church as it tells its story" that would include a research center. Council member Tom Gossen reported that the owner of a site east of St. David's Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas, has accepted in principle the archives' $9.5 million offer. The archives currently leases space on the campus of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest. The site is now a parking lot that generates $360,000 a year, Gossen said, and would continue to do that as the archives gathered financing for a potentially $41 million development on the site.
The Executive Council carries out the programs and policies adopted by the General Convention, according to Canon I.4 (1)(a). The Council is composed of 38 members, 20 of whom (four bishops, four priests or deacons and 12 lay people) are elected by General Convention and 18 (one clergy and one lay) by provincial synods, plus the Presiding Bishop and the president of the House of Deputies.
-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is Episcopal Life Media correspondent for Episcopal Church governance, structure, and trends.
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