The Parish Assessment was introduced in January 2016 to help fund the operations of the central administration of the Diocese that support our parishes, schools and other entities. The assessment is structured as a tax on recurring parish revenue accounts* as follows:

Parishes with recurring revenue < $125,000                                            8% assessment
Parishes with recurring revenue > $125,000 but < $400,000              11% assessment
Parishes with recurring revenue > $400,000                                          14% assessment

*Recurring revenue excludes extraordinary income such as bequests or gains on sale of assets.

For the 6-month period January 2016-June 2016, and for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 (July 2016-June 2017), the parish assessment was based on FY 2015 revenue.  During FY 2017 a committee of pastors was convened to review the assessment, and that committee recommended, and Bishop da Cunha approved, effective FY 2018 the following updates:

  • FY 2018 assessment would be based on FY 2016 parish revenues (down 2.2% from FY 2015), with an additional 1% reduction applied evenly to each parish.
  • Assessment would remain fixed for FY 2018-FY 2020 (this was subsequently extended to FY 2021).

The Parish Assessment, combined with investment earnings and other income (such as donations, bequests, service fees to other affiliated organizations), to fund central administration staff costs, professional fees, etc., as outlined below:

FY 2019 Actual
Parish Assessment $ 3,839,901
Investment Income 2,181,586
Other Revenue* 2,473,009
Total Income $ 8,494,496
 

 
Central Admin Employee Costs $ 1,413,160
Clergy and Religious 152,927
Professional and Legal 1,307,926
Bad debt 1,141,824
Other** 1,745,258
Total Expense $ 5,761,095

*Other revenue included a $1.8M extraordinary accounting adjustment related to special collections from prior to FY 2016
**Other expenses include Diocesan contributions to the pension plans, depreciation, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops/Mass. Catholic Conference fees, real estate costs, etc.

Additional notes on this income and expense are included on page 22 of the State of the Fall River Diocese Report, 2014-2019.