PCUSA financial plight raises question about selling building By John H. Adams The Layman Online Monday, October 2, 2006 LOUISVILLE, Ky. – More news about the precarious financial situation in the Presbyterian Church (USA) came in bits and snatches during the General Assembly Council's meeting in Louisville on Sept. 26-29. It prompted council member Gordon Edwards of Stillwater, Okla., to ask, "Is any discussion going on about maintaining 100 Witherspoon or selling that property and moving? As we downsize, I assume the building is getting emptier and emptier." "Since you verbalized that on the floor, I'm sure we will," responded Allison Seed, the council's chair. The PCUSA owns its headquarters building at 100 Witherspoon St. near the Ohio River. At one time, the building housed about 700 denominational employees. Today, the General Assembly Council includes 396 employees and the total employment is less than 500. The reductions reflect a declining mission budget that has dropped from $144 million in 2001 to an adjusted mission budget of $98.9 million for 2007. Some of the ongoing financial problems, as disclosed by Joey Bailey, the denomination's chief financial officer, include: The revenue for the 2006 budget year is running about 5 percent below projections. Per capita apportionment receipts for 2006 was down more than $300,000, the highest in recent years and about 3 percent below projections. Undesignated giving is still declining, reducing the council's spending options. Presbyteries and synods that receive partnership mission funding from the denomination are worried that they will lose their support. Those funds, which enable some governing bodies to remain in business, are assured through 2007. The General Assembly Council's expenses are running higher than last year. Expenses in GAC-supervised areas are running higher than expected – primarily because of new costs for communications. The extent of the decline in per-capita revenue could be worse, according to the comments of several presbytery executives, if the denomination did not have a policy of requiring presbyteries to make up the difference when sessions decide to redirect per capita as a protest against some of the denomination's actions. Bailey told the council that, "It's likely receipts will end the year in the area of $3 million" below the amount of undesignated money that is needed for administrative costs and budget programs. "I hope we can control our expenses," he added. "We really need to tighten our purse strings these last 90 days." One of the problems, Bailey says, was the decision to keep Presbyterians Today, the denomination's monthly magazine, on life support through 2007. Council member John Bolt of Charleston, W. Va., said he was surprised that the magazine would be subsidized that long. He said he recalled that the General Assembly Council had discussed a subsidy of $143,000 for publishing the magazine only through 2006. The future of the publication would then be determined after a broader evaluation of the General Assembly Council's "communications" strategy. Barry Creech, the denomination's communications spokesman, had a different understanding of what the council had committed to. "In April, it was my understanding that you did not want to eliminate Presbyterians Today." He said he believed the council's conclusion was to keep Presbyterians Today in the budget "for the short term" – through 2007. After the issue of communications was raised, one council member suggested the denomination needed to hire a press secretary to make sure the news is positive. Council members have frequently complained that news stories – even some from the denomination's Presbyterian News Service – have given the council and the denomination a negative image.

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