FY27 - BUDGET FORUM

FY27 Budget Draft
 
In preparation for our Annual Meeting, I am sharing today a draft of the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) running from July 1st 2026 – June 30th 2027.  This draft has been prepared in partnership with staff, council, and the personnel and finance teams.  Council has not voted on this budget yet and whether to make any changes before sending it to the congregation for approval at our annual meeting on June 14th.  
This draft was presented to the community at the Virtual Budget Forum on May 13th. Unfortunately, technical issues made the recording unsalvageable.  The slides from that meeting are attached and below is an explanation of the changes for this year.  
We would welcome any questions / comments / concerns you have as soon as possible. You’re welcome to email treasurer@salthousehchurch.org or contact any council member with questions (who will likely refer you to the Treasurer).  
Thanks,
Irwin
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Operating Income
We attempt to estimate operating income each year as we set our expense budget to understand if we end the year with a net positive, neutral, or negative cash flow.  Our income comes from 3 sources:

• Giving – Always the hardest to estimate. This year we are on track to meet our FY26 goal of $435,000 in giving.  As such we would like to set a new goal for FY27 of $455,000, a 5% increase 
• Interest – This is based on interest from our bank accounts and investments.  No planned change this year.  
• Rent (Church + Parsonage) - We are proposing a 2% increase for our renters, just below the Cost of Living increase this year of 2.8%. 

The above changes would increase our income by ~$23,000 or 4%

Operating Expenses
Operating Expenses are what we plan to spend next year to operate our church.  Beyond what is approved in the budget, Council does have the power to authorize additional spending up to $5000 per contract if necessary.  Changes to the budget or spending beyond that from the general fund would require subsequent approval from our membership as we saw this year when we voted to repair the parsonage roof.
For FY27 the draft budget makes the following changes to expenses

• Staff – All raises are as advised by the personnel team and in alignment with Synod recommendations and Cost of Living increases 
• Raises 
  • 3.8% increase for our Head Pastor 
  • 2.8% increases for our Ministry Director and Families lead 
• Replacements 
  • Youth Leader $25/hour @ 15 hours/week  
  • Nursery Support Backup Person $19/hour @ 36 hours/year 
• No Change 
  • Admin $29/hour @ 30 hours/week 
• Interm Pastor 
  • 13 weeks of Pr David in FY27 
• Office Changes 
  • $2250 in Office Supplies and Digital Coms based on current year spending 
  • $2600 in in Software and Electric Bank Fees based on current year spending Thank you to the community! Those of you who moved from credit cards to debit cards or bank withdrawals have saved us a huge amount!  
• Buildings & Grounds 
  • $1000 for Improvements – Planned improvements we want to make to the building including new doors and roof coatings 
  • $2500 for Security based on last year’s spend and increase in monitoring costs 
  • $3650 in utility bills, insurance, taxes and fees based on spending and increases next year
  • $9000 to refill the emergency Building Fund. We established this fund last year and used ~$9000 from it to fix the parsonage roof.  We would like to refill that fund back to its initial $20,000 
• Ministry Programs
  • $1000 for Food, Supplies and Welcome gifts to support the growing community
  • $1000 to support Youth and Family programs 
  • $22,000 for Guest Pastors.  We set this to $30,000 last year to cover the transition to one pastor and preparing for Pr Sara’s sabbatical.  The new amount of $8000 covers 2x guest speakers per month + $2000 additional.  The balance is absorbed into staff costs for Interm Pastor David 

In total, this raises our expense budget by $38,200 or 7%.  With no changes we would be <$2000 net negative for next year and very close to balanced.

Next Steps

• Council Meeting May 26th – Council reviews the budget, makes any final changes and approves a version to send to the congregation 
• Annual Meeting June 14th – Congregation votes on the budget 

A Note on Hiring
While we are not explicitly accounting for it in the budget, there have been questions on if/when we will hire additional spiritual leadership. An additional full-time Pastor would likely cost us $120,000-$190,000 in salary and benefits based on their experience. While they could replace up to $50,000 of current staff, it would still require significant growth in our income to support hiring at that level.  We do of course have options for a part-time leader as well.  
 
While not allocating money for this in the budget as there are no specific plans, we do view next year as a test of what we can really support financially via giving to determine what we can do for hiring.  We wanted to share this info as you consider this budget and your pledges/giving for next year.