2009-11 budget passed
After much debate, delegates passed the 2009-11 budget Thursday, a budget that provided enough funding for Ministerial Education to retain WELS' present three-tier, four-school system and to prevent further cuts in the Boards for Home and World Missions.
Instead the additional $1 million needed to balance the $30 million budget—cut from $38 million or 20 percent—will come from the following:
- Communications—$50,000;
- Financial Services—$100,000;
- Technology—$150,000;
- Congregational Resource Team (Parish Services)—$200,000;
- Mission Counselors—$100,000; and
- Corporate travel expenses—$400,000.
The Finance and Budget Floor Committee presented the resolution to the full convention Wednesday afternoon after more than 20 hours of work. The proposal superseded two budget options brought to the convention by the Synodical Council, options that would have either cut $500,000 each from both Home and World Missions or $1 million from Ministerial Education.
Delegates supporting and opposing the resolution discussed the proposal for more than two hours before voting 291 to 69 to adopt the resolution.
"You heard both sides—people speaking passionately and with a heart of faith for the church's work," says Rev. Joel Otto, chairman of the committee. "I feel that it went with a Christian spirit, a desire to work together."
Some delegates noted the close relationship between missions and ministerial education as well as the need to reaffirm the core ministries established at the 2005 and 2007 synod conventions—ministerial education and missions.
Others felt that more attention should have been paid to the two options provided by the Synodical Council and were concerned about hurting support ministries such as technology and financial services with further cuts. "My disappointment was that neither A or B were really discussed from a non-emotional standpoint," says Mr. Ryan Walz, a teacher delegate from David's Star, Jackson, Wis.
Otto notes that the Finance and Budget Floor Committee did consider both options, "but after hearing people's reactions in [Monday's] open forum, our committee was pretty much unanimous in saying we can come up with something," he says.
Other resolutions brought by the Finance and Budget Floor Committee offered options for further support. Delegates adopted a resolution that encourages WELS entities participating in the WELS VEBA insurance program to take advantage of the one-month WELS VEBA premium holiday in 2009 by remitting those savings to WELS for use in the Financial Stabilization Fund—a fund designed to hold one-time dollars such as bequests, grants, and specific gifts for use in the year after they are received—and for missions and ministries.
They also adopted a resolution calling for "furloughs" for synod workers if further reductions to the budget are needed for the 2010-11 fiscal year.
Otto was pleased with the overwhelming votes for the resolution but doesn't feel that the delegates' work is done.
"The biggest encouragement I would give is that the delegates here need to go back to our congregations and continue placing before our people the importance of the synod's work," says Otto. "All of our pastors, all of our called workers, all of our members just need to see the value of what we do together—the training of workers and sending them out. That's finally what it is all about."
Read these and other resolutions online.
Filed Under: Budget, Convention, Finance, resolutions
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