Release #065 {2929} April 26, 1996
DENVER (UMNS) -- The 1996 General Conference here April 26 approved a budget of $508,260,000 to fund the churchwide efforts of the United Methodist Church for the next four years.
The amount will be apportioned to the denomination's regional structure and -- through it -- to congregations using a formula based on number of members and other factors.
The adopted budget reflects increases of 1 percent over the 1996 budget for 1997, then no increase for 1998 and a 2 percent increase for each of the next two years.
In reaching the final total, the 998 delegates first had approved a report that kept planned increases in the apportioned funds to zero for 1997 and 1998 and raised them only 2 percent in 1999 and 2000. This "0-0-2-2" formula had been proposed by the church's finance agency and the conference's financial administration legislative committee.
But, during the 10-day deliberations here, delegates approved four additional programs that had a combined price tag of almost $4.8 million. That amount was not provided for in the original budget proposal. Hence, the revision.
In addition, the legislative committee differed from the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) on some allocations within the yearly totals.
Committee members argued the importance of supporting the denomination's 13 seminaries and 11 historically black colleges. Subsequently, the committee offered an alternative that increased those two funds while reducing others.
Faced with a choice, General Conference delegates favored the legislative committee recommendation by a ratio of 3 to 1. That plan reduces funding for basic program and episcopal support in order to increase money for ministerial education and the black colleges. The total amount moved is slightly more than $1.3 million, spread over four years.
Subsequently, the delegates grappled with their desire to fund the four new programs and a competing desire to retain the 0-0-2-2 formula.
Amendments from the floor suggested several ways of cutting the amount needed, especially in regard to the Focus on Young People, However, others rose in support and that program ultimately was budgeted at $3 million.
Also included in the add-on portion of the budget was a plan to provide resources in Asian languages other than Korean, to study Korean-American ministry needs and to finance a "Connectional Process Team" as a response to the Connectional Issues Study and the bishops' study of the global church.
With the new programs, apportionments will increase 1 percent in 1997. The new formula, as adopted, is 1-0-2-2 percent increases.
Almost three hours were devoted to discussion of budget in the plenary session, but as Bishop Edwin C. Boulton, GCFA president, said, the process began at least two years earlier.
Extensive information was gathered from the church's agencies, and budgets were stretched and contracted to accommodate agency proposals for new programs as well as those funded by the mission initiatives of the 1993-96 quadrennium.
Several representatives of GCFA and the legislative committee voiced commitment to the 0-0-2-2 formula in response to pleas for financial relief from congregations and individuals.
In their presentations, the chairpersons reported that most church agencies already had made plans to reduce the number of people on their governing boards and initiate other economies as the church worked to downsize.
During the extended budget discussions that covered 16 GCFA reports and variations from the legislative committee, several amendments were offered from the floor. Most of them would have altered the amount provided for the new programs proposed at General Conference, but some would have required funding from other non-apportioned funds or taken from the programs already in effect.
-- Joretta Purdue
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