b) Total Commitment Sharing with Metropolises

On April 18, 2019, the Finance Committee formally clarified and approved the policies for the determination of Total Commitment (“TC”) Sharing with Metropolises. Those policies are outlined below.

Provided the Metropolis/District has no outstanding balance owed to the Archdiocese, all TC payments received for a given year through January 15 of the following year are credited to the current year for meeting current year obligations and for TC Sharing Purposes;

1. 25% of said payments up to 98% are distributed to the Metropolis/District and 75% retained by the Archdiocese;
2. All monies collected between 98% and 100% shall be distributed to the Metropolis/District;
3. After any Metropolis/District attains 100% (no later than January 15 of the following year), 75% of any payments for the current year received through 1/15 of the following year are distributed to the Metropolis/District and 25% retained by the Archdiocese;
4. For Metropolises that have met prior budgeted amounts, all payments received in the current year for past due balances should be credited for the current year regardless of the year it was accrued (those collections represent collection of “cushion”); and,
5. No payment will ever be credited more that once, i.e. if received between January 1 and January 15 and credited to the prior year, it cannot be credited to the current year.

If any District/Metropolis did not attain 100% of TC budget in the prior year(s), all monies owed the Archdioceses shall be deducted from current year TC collections before determining current year TC Sharing. If the Metropolis/District underspent its expense budget, the amount underspent will be credited to arrears until all such arrears are paid in full. Any deviations from the policy must be approved by the Finance Committee.

In addition, with respect to other situations, the Finance Committee affirmed these existing policies:

1. All TC Sharing amounts due a Metropolis will be paid as soon as determined after each year end.
2. If a Metropolis overspends its expense budget, the overspending will be deducted from any TC Sharing payment that may be due the Metropolis.
3. If a Metropolis underspends its expense budget, but does not reach 98% of its TC budget, it will be entitled to receive the underspent amount, less funds that the Archdiocese would have received had 98 % of the Metropolis’ TC budget been reached.
4. If a Metropolis spends in excess of TC sharing payments it may be due, it will work with the Archdiocese in good faith to establish a payment plan to the Archdiocese for the excess spending. If any amount due the Archdiocese is not paid by the following year, any past due amount may be deducted from the Metropolis’ newly earned TC Sharing.
5. The Minimum funding for a Metropolis will be the greater of 25% of the amount collected (all collections including prior year and current year over budget collections) or $486,053 for 2019. The Minimum funding is increased each year at the same percent that aggregate GOA Total Commitment is increased. For example, the 3% increase in TC approved for 2020 raises the minimum sharing 3% to $500,635 for 2020. This process was approved in the March 19, 2018 Finance Committee Meeting.

   For Clarification since 25% of collections is in the base calculation, amounts collected over budget and from prior years receive 50% additional TC Sharing when doing computations, for a total of 75%. The effect of this is that Metropolises that receive the minimum funding collect 50% of overages since the first 25% was already considered in determining minimum funding.

Consistent with the resolutions adopted at the 2020 Clergy Laity Congress, if Benefits Funding payments in a Metropolis do not achieve the Metropolis assigned budget amount, then the shortfall is subtracted from Total Commitment receipts before computation of the Total Commitment Sharing for the Metropolis and the shortfall is remitted to the ABC (Archdiocese Benefits Committee). This fulfills the pledge made by the GOA that “first dollars” go to meeting the Benefits Funding before being applied to the GOA Total Commitment budget.