Kerry Rice, deputy stated clerk for the Office of the General Assembly, explains the rationale for a per capita apportionment increase. —Photo by: Danny Bolin
The Assembly Committee on General Assembly Procedures recommended a single per capita increase of 10 percent for 2019 and no increase in 2020 during its meeting Monday afternoon at the 223rd General Assembly (2018) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Committee members voted 33-19 on item 03-1 for this reduction of a recently revised proposal of a 10 percent increase each of the next two years. If approved by the General Assembly in plenary, the per capita apportionment will be increased from $7.73 to $8.50 per member through 2020.
The drop to 10 percent was reduced from a revised request from Stated Clerk J. Herbert Nelson, II of 20 percent which itself was reduced from a nearly 40 percent hike originally proposed by the Committee on the Office on the General Assembly after its February meeting.
The amended amount, if approved, will prompt the Office of General Assembly to look for ways to cut about $600,000 from the OGA portion of the per capita budget, roughly $11.8 million, according to Kerry Rice, deputy stated clerk for OGA.
Per capita includes funding for all of the Office of the General Assembly’s budget for producing the biennial GA meetings, maintaining records and statistics, costs for the work of the stated clerk and co-moderators, mid council relations, Presbyterian Mission Agency and shared services costs (about 30 percent of the per capita budget combined), ecumenical relations and 62% of the Presbyterian Historical Society’s costs.
In other business the committee voted not to approve an amendment to the General Assembly Standing Rules that would have limited the number of overture advocates from presbyteries.