wfn.org | Recommendation to increase per capita $0.22

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Note #6628 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

12-June-2001
GA01069

Recommendation to increase per capita $0.22

by Frank Buhrman

LOUISVILLE, June 12 - The General Assembly Committee on Procedures has
recommended approval of a $0.22 increase in per capita .  The new total of
$5.20 will raise $14.6 million toward the 2002 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
General Assembly budget.

	The action came after an hour of discussion during which half a dozen
Assembly staff members responded to questions about the amount of the
increase and concerns that subsequent actions during this week's annual
meeting would cause the figure to go even higher.

	Jim Collie, representing the Committee on the Office of the General
Assembly, admitted that $0.22 was "a heck of an increase," but he also
displayed a chart showing that the total increase over the past five years
had lagged behind the inflation rate.

	As he moved the committee toward its vote, Moderator Bill Neal expressed
the opinion that little could be done to change the proposal.

	"My sense is there's not much we can do about it," Neal said. "That $0.22
is not going to go away."

	After completing its portion of the budget work, the committee rejected
proposals from the Presbytery of Philadelphia that would have sought relief
for presbyteries whose churches cannot or will not pay their share of per
capita.

	Philadelphia Executive Presbyter Ed Gehres told the committee that some of
his churches had to choose between paying the electric bill and paying their
share of per capita. A General Assembly action of 1999 gives presbyteries
much of the responsibility for making up those lost funds. Gehres said that
Philadelphia has to take funds from mission activities to do that.

	As a result, Philadelphia proposed that a task force be formed to study
combining General Assembly mission and per capita apportionment budgets, and
that equitable relief be provided to presbyteries from the burden of making
up for per capita shortfalls.

	Commissioners viewed the overture skeptically, wondering if combining the
budgets would lead to more complicated documents and whether it was the
right way to approach the presbyteries' problem.

	Gehres and Mark Tammen, director for Constitutional Services in the Office
of General Assembly, disagreed on how far a presbytery's obligation
extended, with Tammen insisting that only undesignated funds - not those for
mission - would be involved.

	In the end, the overture failed, both in its original version and in an
amended form that only called for equitable relief.

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