Proposal seeks to hike per capita 2.8 percent
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman Online, January 30, 2002
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Calling it a “difficult year for per capita,” Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick has proposed that the 214th General Assembly raise the per-capita rate to $5.40 per active member for 2003, an increase of 15 cents or 2.8 percent.
Members of the General Assembly Council executive committee and the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly approved Kirkpatrick’s recommendation.
Kirkpatrick, presenting the proposal to a joint meeting of the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly and the executive committee of the General Assembly Council, said the proposed per-capita rate was based on the assumption that the denomination will lose 45,000 members in 2002 and the amount of per-capita withheld will double – from $200,000 in 2001 to $425,000 in 2003.
Kirkpatrick also proposed a per-capita expenditure budget of $14,303,50 for 2003 – a reduction of $400,693 from 2002. The Office of the General Assembly will absorb $272,000 of the reduction, while the GAC reduction will total $12,177.
“We believe that such restraint in the increase in the per-capita rate and such reductions in the expenditure level are necessary for the well-being of the church and the fiscal integrity of the per-capita budget,” his report said.