The currently proposed Budget 2025-2028 calls for a 2.7% increase: a reversal of the 2016 Budget’s 2.7% decrease. Regrettably, not only are our views on budget increases illogical, but also our deceptive manner of increasing the budget is a not so funny joke!

Budget Increases are universally despised, sometimes irrationally. Perhaps we rightly reason that the church cannot bear an increase to the General Budget. It is wrong to assume we can do the same things with the same funds as inflation devalues our stagnant budget. The sane approach would be to look at programs and reassess priorities. We do not like to question or cut existing programs. Increasing the budget (or not) is supposed to be a “program” question, not a math problem. We fail at facing “program” and the difficult decisions attached to “program.”

The modest 2.7% increase distracts from the significant cut in program support (25%-50%) as one seminary, legal fees, and Retirement Restoration all see an increase in funding. This leads us to the fact of the matter: the 2025-2028 Proposed Budget calls for a budget increase far beyond 2.7%. The exact amount of the “increase” is difficult to compute.

We used the same play we have run for 25 years: increase the budget by redirecting costs. Old Play! If you are older than me, you can remember when the General Church gave travel stipends to General Conference delegates. Now, Districts support General Conference Delegate Expenses (unevenly we may add). When the Church got in a legal bind, the Districts picked up the tab for General Board travel (I was surprised that did not return in the current budget, or did it?). When schools, components and programs are cut by 25% without an accompanying cut in the programs, we did not cut the budget (or avoid increasing it). We shifted the Budget Increase somewhere else! Diverting expenses is the same as increasing the budget.

Just because bishops’ travel was cut 25%, do we think there will be fewer meetings, held at budget hotels, for a shorter time? Will bishops ride a bus instead of fly after August? A joke! Somebody will pick up the slack. The same is anticipated with regard to schools and components. Ultimately, the same folk will support The Increase.

We have shifted chunks of the Budget to less transparent fiscal areas within our larger community. The increase is not small…certainly, more than 2.7% By this time next year, we will begin to see The Increase.