Treasurer Reports to Executive Council
Episcopal News Service. February 19, 1976 [76069]
Greenwich, Conn. -- The apportionment pledges by the domestic dioceses of the Episcopal Church toward the $13.8 million 1976 general church program budget "are very encouraging," according to Matthew Costigan, treasurer of the Executive Council.
He told the Council at its Feb. 18-19 meeting that 78 of the 93 domestic dioceses will probably accept their full apportionment, compared with 75 in 1975. In 1976 eight dioceses have pledged more than their assigned apportionment while 15 dioceses have under-pledged, compared with five over and 19 under in 1975.
Mr. Costigan predicted that the Council "will fall short of our estimated 1976 apportionment income by a small margin," but the situation does not appear to be "serious enough to revise" the 1976 budget.
The treasurer reported that the real estate tax case against the Episcopal Church Center property by the City of New York "has been finally settled in our favor," after several years of litigation and appeals. Approximately $328,000, which has been held in escrow, is expected to be returned to the Council by the City of New York by the end of 1976.
Mr. Costigan reported that the Council has approximately $700,000 in reserve funds for emergencies, of which $440,000 is principal of trust funds established in previous years. He called this reserve fund "an unreasonably low level" in case of a "serious shortfall in income," especially with an uncertain market and "the effect of inflation and recession in our dioceses."
Because of the Council's policy of using all available undesignated legacies for balancing the general church program budget, he said, "there are no means available to the Executive Council to accumulate a reasonable level of reserves to meet emergencies."
Looking forward to the next six years, Mr. Costigan predicted "there will be a scarcity of uncommitted funds," or grant programs, in the national general church program budget. The percentage of funds for grants and other programs has decreased since 1974, while support of domestic and overseas work of the Episcopal Church and support of the Anglican Communion has risen slightly. Even though the size of the staff at the Episcopal Church Center is "almost frozen" at the 1974 level (118 in 1974, 116 proposed for 1977), "fixed cost and supportive cost are still accelerating," he said.
"In 1974 salaries and supportive cost represented 30 percent of the budget and in 1977 will be 36 percent of the budget," he said. Grant program funds have decreased from 22 percent of the national budget in 1974 to 16 percent in 1977, he pointed out.
"Unless there is a decided change in the method for funding the general church program, by the end of this triennium, there will be practically no grant funds available on the national Church level," Mr. Costigan said.
He expressed the hope that General Convention's Program, Budget, and Finance Committee "will seriously take this into account when deliberating this Church's budget for the next triennium."
In response to questions from staff and Council members, the finance department was asked to clarify what is meant by "uncommitted funds," which the treasurer interpreted to mean "grant programs."
Bishop Richard B. Martin, Executive for Ministries, said, "If we are going to have a department with undesignated funds, how can we have a department?"
George T. Guernsey III, St. Louis, Mo., chairman of the Council's Ministry Committee, said it was his understanding that "once an item," such as grants for ethnic and minority programs, "was in the budget, it isn't uncommitted. "
Mr. Costigan reported that the Council ended 1975 with a balance of $3,000 in the general church program budget, though it had to take $45,000 from the reserve for contingency fund "in order to avoid a deficit." When faced unexpectedly with a possible half million dollar income deficit in mid-October, the administrative group and staff exercised careful discipline in cutting expenses the remainder of 1975, he said.
Total authorized expenditures for 1975, he said, amounted to $13,926,000, while "the staff held the expenditures to $13,585,000."
The market value of the Council's trust funds, he said, increased from $29.4 million in 1974 to $32.5 million in 1975.
Mr. Costigan reported record receipts for the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief in 1975. Contributions totaled $2,671,807.67, which, together with a balance of $294,376.34 carried over from 1974, and $59,747.05 earned in interest, made a grand total of funds available of $3,025,931.06. The Fund's board allocated $2,076,269.52 in grants during 1975, leaving a balance of $949,661.54 at the beginning of 1976.