Dear St. Simon Family,

We realize that there have been a number of questions about the finances of the parish, especially this past year with all of the issues created by the COVID pandemic.

Let us first say that all of the numbers we will be discussing are related to the parish’s finances minus our school ministry.  The main source of revenue for the parish is our Sunday collections.  If we use the budgeted numbers for the 2020-2021 fiscal year, 87% of all the parish revenues come from your annual tithing.  The remaining 13% comes from the Festival (4%), Royal Extravaganza (4%), other donations, and ministry fees (5%).

In looking at the budgeted expenses for the parish, it might be easier to see how each dollar of your tithes and other revenues are spent.  Below is a breakdown of how each dollar is spent along with a short video with more description.

        

Parish Salary & Benefits             $0.28

Administrative Expenses            $0.03

Archdiocese Assessments:

            Cathedraticum                        $0.08

            High School Assessment        $0.10

Facility Expenses               $0.13

Parish Ministries                $0.04

Interest on School Building            $0.20

Budgeted Principal Payments        $0.14

The amount budgeted for principal payments this year is $300,000.  If the parish falls short of the budgeted amount, the first category impacted is the principal payments to the Archdiocese.

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 restrictions, we were not able to have our festival this summer.  While the festival is all about fun and welcoming the community into our parish, it also serves as one of our largest fundraisers.  The budget for the fiscal year that ended June 30 included $90,000 net income from the festival.  If you followed the financial numbers that were reported in the bulletin this past year, it was difficult not to see that we fell short of our budgeted Sunday Collections by $150,000.  Both factors impacted our ability to make principal payments this past year.  The good news in all of this is the Archdiocese did delay our principal and interest payments for 3 months.  This decision allowed the parish to meet our other financial obligations with the funds available.

So, here is what we are asking each of you to consider.  First, consider donating the amount that you would have spent at the festival to the parish in order to help cover the budget shortfall.  Second, please consider increasing your weekly/monthly tithing amount in order to help enable the parish to pay the debt down sooner.

Shared Blessings,

Greg Chiles: Business Manger
Eric Marasco: Stewardship Director
Andy Manchir: Parishioner & Finance Commission.