The General Assembly Mission Council is meeting here Oct. 5-8.
The 2010 General Assembly made decisions that will add just under $296,000 in costs to the denomination’s mission budget in 2011 and just under $208,000 in 2012, according to Joey Bailey, the PC(USA)’s chief financial officer.
Those decisions include measures to re-establish a PC(USA) Office of Collegiate Ministries; to strengthen the Peacemaking Program; to provide scholarships for young adult volunteers; and to develop a funding strategy for the continuation of the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association. Other assembly actions with cost implications include a study of coastal wetlands destruction and the development of study materials to support public education.
Bailey also proposes adding a 1 percent increase to the budget to cover, as a contingency, the possibility of a dues increase from the Board of Pensions. That would add $107,934 in unrestricted costs to the PC(USA)’s mission budget in 2012 and $46,667 in restricted costs, Bailey told the council’s Executive Committee today (Oct. 5).
Some shifting within the budget also is being made to accommodate a new cost allocation system, which is intended to more accurately assess to each ministry division that division’s share of costs associated with administrative, overhead and other expenses associated with doing the denomination’s business. As a part of that shift, for example, nearly $6 million in costs was removed from the PC(USA)’s Communications and Funds Development office for 2011 and nearly that much added as expenses for World Mission.
The bottom line is this: the proposed revised budget for 2011 would be $82.5 million, including $1.3 million drawn from reserves. And the 2012 budget would be nearly $81.1 million, with more than $1.8 million taken from reserves.
Last May, the council approved an $11.8 million budget cut for 2011, dropping the PC(USA)’s mission budget from $93.8 million in 2010 to $82 million for 2011 and $80.5 million in 2012 – a reduction of 12.2 percent in the first year and 2 percent in the second. The GAMC will vote on the proposed budget revisions later this week.
