Here is the report I gave at all the Masses the weekend of October 15/16:

Inserted in your bulletin is our annual Parish Financial Report. I’m pleased to say that there is a lot of good news in it. Our annual offertory collections increased by close to $25,000.00. Thank you all for your generosity. I am sure that the use of Faith Direct online giving helps significantly in our improved offertory collection. Our total income for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016 was $835,592, up by approximately $19,000 over the previous fiscal year. In the same period our total expenses decreased by over $57,000. Since 2014, we have been able to decrease our payroll by over $100,000. These savings are very important since we have had to refinance the line of credit with Capital One. As you will note in the report, we paid $10,782 in fiscal year 2014-2015 and $17, 765 in fiscal year 2015-2016 toward this debt. Considering that this loan still has an outstanding balance of over $900,000 we were many decades away from paying off this loan. With the refinancing, we now have a fifteen year loan with monthly payments of just under $6,000, totaling $71,050 per year.

The reason for this refinancing, apart from needing to pay off this debt in a reasonable amount of time, is to better position ourselves financially to build the new rectory. I know many of you have been wondering about where we are on that project. This past December, we put the project out to bid, with the low bid coming in at just over $600,000.00. The Archdiocese was not ready to approve this bid for two main reasons. First, there are still many contingencies in the proposal that could significantly drive up the cost. Second, if the cost would exceed $800,000.00, as was possible given all the contingencies and extra costs, the parish would be left with an insufficient reserve for the parish and the school.

Right now, the facilities management team for the Archdiocese is looking for ways to lower the cost of the rectory and to determine more accurately the final cost of the project. In the meantime, the Archdiocese has extended the exemption for donations to our rectory fund until August, 2017. This means that contributions made to the rectory fund will continue to not be subject to assessment by the Archdiocese and will be applied completely toward the new rectory.

The school is doing very well financially. We have over 250 students. The school has operated with a surplus for the last two fiscal years and we see no reason now why it should not do the same in the 2016-2017 fiscal year. Dr. Showalter is doing a superior job of maintaining the excellence of St. Mary of the Assumption School while keeping it fiscally sound.

For the Cardinal’s Appeal, our pledges exceeded $100,000.00 for the first time. This is quite a milestone for us.

The bottom line, I am pleased to report, is that as of June 30, 2016 our total cash on hand exceeded 1 million dollars. While a large portion of this will eventually go into building the rectory, our sound financial condition is solely the result of your generosity. Thank you, again, for your generosity and your continued support of our parish.