[Lnc-business] Email Ballot 2018-20: AMEND BUDGET

[Alicia Mattson]

I'll not yet my vote until I get some additional information.

I'd like to remind my colleagues that budgets are just guesses written down
on paper.  With this motion, we're not just shuffling numbers around on
paper, but we're also approving spending it for very specific purposes.
Before we start shuffling budget numbers, we need to be looking at how
actual performance is running versus budget projections.

Unless I've overlooked it, I don't think we've yet received June financial
statements.  It could be that the convention put that a little behind
schedule.  Since I was on the previous LNC, I have the end-of-month May
2018 financials which our newer members will not have seen.  This will at
least give you something, rather than nothing, to consult.

The budget adopted by the previous LNC for 2018 had a $350k deficit,
essentially betting on revenues to come in higher than budget.  Is that the
case?  So far this year, we're running $69k below budget on revenues, and
that was a deficit budget.  The cost of raising those revenues is running
within $2k of budget.  We're afloat because our program expenses are
running $100k under budget.  At the bottom line, we're running a $33k
surplus so far this year.

Now we're planning to take $34k of budgeted expenses that we weren't going
to spend at all, and we're going to spend them.  This will wash out our
surplus and put our actual performance (not budget) at break-even for the
year.

I'd like to hear more about what exactly the spending plan is.  Two things
are listed in the motion:
1)  cost of existing candidate recruitment and campaigns advisor support
staff, and
2) to provide up to $20,000 for candidate field support expenses though the
end of the budget year.

Parsing the words here, it says we've hired more staff than we budgeted
for?  This will be an ongoing expense, not just a one-time cost that will
be fixed by this one shuffle.  Can we have specifics of what the
over-budget costs are?

For the candidate field support expenses, my guess is that this is perhaps
intended to help incumbents such as Brandon Phinney and Laura Ebke.  If so,
I'm inclined to support, but I would like more details about whether that's
the intent.  Or are we planning to give token contributions to candidates
in other situations?

-Alicia






On Fri, Aug 3, 2018 at 2:08 AM, Caryn Ann Harlos via Lnc-business <
lnc-business at hq.lp.org> wrote:

> Email Ballot 2018-20: AMEND BUDGET
>
> We have an electronic mail ballot.
>
> Votes are due to the LNC-Business list by AUGUST 10, 2018 at
> 11:59:59pm Pacific time.
>
> Co-Sponsors:  GOLDSTEIN, HARLOS, LONGSTRETH, O’DONNELL, PHILLIPS, VAN HORN
>
> Motion: Decrease the budget for line 70-Ballot Access VR & Related Exp
> by $34,400 from $250,000 to $216,600 (a $34,400 decrease) and increase
> the budget for line 60-Candidate, Campaign & Initiatives from $58,800
> to $92,200 (a $34,400 increase) to cover the cost of existing
> candidate recruitment and campaigns advisor support staff, and to
> provide up to $20,000 for candidate field support expenses though the
> end of the budget year.
>
> =============================================
>
> You can keep track of the Secretary's manual tally of votes here:
> https://tinyurl.com/lncvoting.  Votes are noted with a link to the
> actual ballot cast for verification.  You can find the time that the
> manual tally was last updated at the bottom of the sheet.
>
> Please notify me of any discrepancies.
>
> --
> In Liberty,
> Caryn Ann Harlos
> Libertarian Party and Libertarian National Committee Secretary -
> Caryn.Ann. Harlos at LP.org or Secretary at LP.org.
> Chair, LP Historical Preservation Committee - LPedia at LP.org
>
>
> A haiku to the Statement of Principles:
> We defend your rights
> And oppose the use of force
> Taxation is theft
>
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