THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Too often in our families, financial health can be knocked out of control by unforeseen events. The same is true for parishes and for the Archdiocese. To that end, pastors and administrators received a letter a few days ago from the Archbishop about money, or more specifically the lack of money.

The Archdiocese is spending, he says, much more to support ministries than it takes in for the General Fund (which is completely separate from Catholic Charities). He needs to do something, and after consultation with and approval from an ad hoc committee of pastors, the Presbyteral Council, and the Archdiocesan Finance Council, he has decided to raise the archdiocesan tax levied on parishes (the so-called cathedraticum) from 5% to 9%, effective to be paid based this year on declared income of CY/FY2009. This comes after a revision in Archdiocesan policies with regard to who can be and who must be considered an “exempt employee.” This revision (made again after our parish budget for CY/FY2010 was passed) necessarily increases our overall salaries for lay employees. I have met with the Archbishop, and I can assure you that his decisions are reasonable, and in fact necessary for the fiscal health of our Archdiocese: he really has no other choice, beyond what is already being done.

The upshot is that while we originally anticipated being in the red this coming fiscal year by about $3,000, and then $20,000 because of the re-structuring of salaries, we were certain we could make up this difference based on the fact of the generosity you all have shown in regular Sunday collections. But this new tax increase is throwing our figuring out of line by an additional $25,000 (approximately). I have already addressed this with both our Finance and Parish Councils; they are all on board for doing what we can to act responsibly.

The good news is that the parish will no longer be charged for parishioners’ subscriptions to The Catholic Week, so we will save about $8,000 there. But there is still a long way to go to make ends meet by the last of December.

The various departments of Our Savior are committing to trying to reduce costs and expenses by 5% in this year (this includes me at the rectory). If we can do this, we should be just fine. And if anyone wishes to continue (or begin!) sending the parish what has been the traditional offering reimbursement for The Catholic Week of $17/year, we would be glad to escrow that amount against our increased archdiocesan tax.

You need to know that we are going to be as responsible as possible in monitoring all expenses (particularly those having to do with utilities). Everyone using our facilities (including parishioners and parish-supported organizations) will need to be responsible with things like heat-A/C and lights, for example. Most folks who work with budgets for companies know that typically about 80% of the overall budget is “fixed”: salaries/insurance, tax, etc. We will do all that is in our power to be vigilant, responsible and thrifty—just like every one of your families must do to manage your own household budgets.

I will welcome any questions you might have about this; I hope I’ll be up to answering them for you. Thank you for being patient and understanding with us—with me.