wfn.org | 15-cent per capita apportionment hike proposed

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #7038 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

31-January-2002
02049

15-cent per capita apportionment hike proposed

Declining membership, withholding cited as reasons for increase

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) and the General Assembly Council (GAC) will propose a 15-cent increase in the General Assembly per capita apportionment to the upcoming 214th General Assembly.

The increase - 2.8 percent - would raise the General Assembly per capita from $5.25 per member to $5.40 in 2003. Last year's Assembly increased per capita 27 cents.

Even with the per capita increase, the 2003 per capita budget - which funds the General Assembly and GAC meetings as well as administrative and ecclesiastical expenses of the Office of the General Assembly (OGA) and the GAC - will be more than $400,000 less than the 2002 budget. The two groups jointly approved a 2003 per capita budget of $14.3 million.

Roughly two-thirds of the per capita budget is allocated to the OGA and one-third to the GAC.

General Assembly stated clerk the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick cited two primary reasons for a needed increase:

* A projected loss in membership, on which the per capita is calculated, of 45,000 members in 2002 (the year on which 2003 per capita is calculated). PC(USA) membership declined 35,000 last year.

* A projected doubling of the amount of unpaid per capita by congregations upset by decisions of the General Assembly and the theological controversies engulfing the church. Per capita withholding/non-payment reached a high-water mark of about $500,000 in the early 1990s and has steadily declined to $165,000 in 2001. With unrest on the rise, however, the uncollectible per capita line in 2003 was increased to $425,000 from 2002's $200,000.

The Rev. Jim Collie, COGA member and executive presbyter for the Presbytery of Santa Fe, sounded a cautionary note. "A 15-cent increase on top of last year's huge increase is politically tough in  year when per capita is on the table in angry, emotional ways," he said. "I'm afraid we're squeezing the wrong turnips on this one."
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