wfn.org | Budget Woes

[PCUSA_NEWS@ecunet.org]

Date: 13-Jun-96 
 
 
96224            General Assembly Backgrounder: 
                           Budget Woes 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
     Each year the General Assembly approves a detailed budget for the next 
year and a planning budget for the year after that. 
 
     The 1996 General Assembly will be asked to approve a detailed 1997 
General Assembly mission budget of $113.8 and a planning budget for 1998 of 
$112.3 million. 
 
     The 1997 detailed budget is $800,000 less than the planning budget for 
next year that was approved by last year's Assembly.  During the past year, 
the General Assembly Council cut $1.2 million from the budgets of its three 
ministry divisions (Congregational Ministries, National Ministries and 
Worldwide Ministries) and its Corporate and Administrative Services office, 
as well as its Office of Communication.  The cuts were needed to balance 
the budget and provide $400,000 for a new youth and young adult ministry 
emphasis in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 
 
     The budget cuts represent a continued decline in contributions from 
congregations and presbyteries to the undesignated portion of the General 
Assembly mission budget.  Unrestricted giving by congregations and 
presbyteries, once the bedrock of the budget, has been declining steadily 
at about 5 percent per year for more than a decade.  It currently 
represents less than 20 percent of the General Assembly mission budget. 
 
     In 1991, the General Assembly mandated a balanced General Assembly 
mission budget -- with no further use of reserves to make up shortfalls -- 
beginning in 1994.  By 1993, the financial situation had reached the point 
that the national offices of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) were 
restructured. That streamlining lopped a whopping $7 million out of the 
General Assembly mission budget and reduced national staff by nearly 25 
percent, from about 600 employees to about 450. 
 
     Ironically, designated giving to specific programs and projects of the 
Presbyterian Church has continued to increase, as has the church's 
endowment and investment income.  But the restricted nature of such income, 
coupled with the decline of unrestricted revenues, has made budget-building 
and essential services funding extremely complex and difficult. 
 
     Complicating the equation, three synods have submitted overtures to 
this General Assembly seeking to decentralize the mission funding process 
by allowing synods and presbyteries to administer money given to the church 
through the Presbyterian Foundation for work in designated geographical 
areas.  Such geographic-specific funds have usually always been channelled 
through the General Assembly mission budget process. 
 
           General Assembly Mission Budget, 1995 - 1996 
 
Year                          Budget        Congregational Giving 
 
1992                      $116,181,360              $28,616,346   
1993                       110,445,765               27,483,885   
1994                       105,770,146               25,832,984   
1995                       107,235,536               24,203,886   
1996                       110,807,866               23,308,192* 
1997                       113,644,825               22,142,782* 
1998                       112,045,775               21,035,642* 
*projected amounts 

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