Parish budget assessments frozen
by Ana Watts
There will be no increase in parish mission and assessment payments in support of the diocesan budget in 2007. The diocesan finance committee recommended the freeze to Diocesan Council at its Nov. 4 meeting. Council accepted the recommendation and approved a task force to develop a new process for the calculation of parish funding requirements. It is hoped the new process will be ready in time to present it to synod next June.
“The present formula has been in place since about 1991 and bases budget support calculations on parish income data that is as much as three years old,” says Bishop Claude Miller. “At archdeaconry meetings last spring several parishes expressed concern over the way their assessment and apportionment were calculated. It was clear the parishes saw our requests for budget support as a tax rather than as a fair allocation of our shared ministry. Under these circumstances, the number of parishes that fail to remit their full share of budget allocations increases each year.”
One parish went so far as to ask for a meeting with the treasurer and asked that: requests for budget funding increases be kept to cost of living increases; an earlier presentation of the diocesan budget to parishes so increases could be calculated in their own budgets; a more open budget process be established, including dialogue between the parishes and the diocese.
The freeze of mission and assessment amounts at 2006 levels not only addresses parish concerns it honours the diocesan call to parishes to be mission-minded.
It is possible the freeze could result in a deficit for 2007, but there is also the possibility that, mindful of attempts to address their concerns, some parishes that have struggled to pay their share in recent years may actually meet their 2006 budget targets.
“We have to build contingencies into our budget for these shortfalls,” says the bishop. “If all parishes were to meet their obligations we would not have any financial worries.”
Close to 90 per cent of the diocesan budget is funded by the parishes. The balance comes from endowments, investment interest and funds from the annual Anglican and Anglican Journal appeals.
A narrative budget for 2007 appears in the December issue of the New Brunswick Anglican.