Finance Committee

The trouble with finance reports is that they rarely answer the questions people have. Until the building is finished, we won't know what the final debt is. We are on track with collection of pledges for "Building Together". There were a lot of expenses not included in the approved building cost: Blacktop, Floor tile, kitchen, classroom equipment, phone system. We used about $40,000 we collected from "Finishing the Job", the pledges that came in after the orginal $800,000 in "Building Together". We are paying for some of the expenses out of the $25,000 projected refund from the Bishop Annual Appeal. We will not be able to clearly define our financial debt for the building until January.

The parish operating budget still has several "soft" line items. We projected utilities budget but until we get actual data the numbers don't mean much. Even the payoff on the debt is impossible to pin down since all money received from pledges goes to the diocese until a final debt is established. We budget interest and principle payments that total less than we are sending. After the building is completed, I will sign a note with the Diocese for what we owe and determine a payment plan. Until then, everything is "soft" and undefined.