By Alan Schmelkin

Finance Committee Chair Sharon Sabba Fierstein

The three-year financial model addresses four critical issues facing the Society. First, the need to prevent a deficit position for 1999­2000, which was a possibility despite significant expense reductions, including the elimination of nine staff positions. Next, a reversal of the negative fund balance, a deficit which has continued to grow since the 1993­1994 fiscal year. A third major concern to Society leaders is the current dues rate structure, with its disparate and inequitable differences among several membership categories. Finally, an expanded membership base is necessary for future viability.

Other important leadership groups in addition to the Finance Committee, the Executive Committee, and the board participated in this process. Major input came from the presidents-elect of the 11 chapters which represent over 18,000 members. NYSSCPA Vice President for Chapters
P. Gerard Sokolski (Rochester) coordinated chapter budget submissions. Members of the Task Force on Staff Compensation, including President George Foundotos (Suffolk); President-Elect Alan Weiner (Nassau); and past presidents Brian Caswell (Syracuse), Francis Nusspickel, and Barry Seidel (Nassau), reviewed with Executive Director Louis Grumet proposed salary figures for every NYSSCPA and FAE staff member. The CPA Journal Business Activity Committee, chaired by Edwin Ruzinsky, dealt with various components of The CPA Journal budget.

For the first time, staff salary allocations and overhead to programs are based on actual results accumulated by a new time reporting system installed last fall, rather than by estimates used in the past. This has enabled the leadership to have a more accurate cost measure of various Society activities. Also, because of their impact on the overall budget, the Finance Committee asked staff for in-depth analyses of publishing alternatives for The CPA Journal and cost comparisons for chapter operations.

Even with expense reductions of $160,900 suggested by the Finance Committee and staff cuts, the 1999­2000 year would have produced a deficit of just under $489,000 at current dues rates. The Finance Committee struggled with the need for greater income for current operations and the ongoing importance of eliminating the growing fund balance deficit, projected at a negative $1,184,000 by May 31, 1999. As a result the committee considered a series of dues increases over the next few years that would provide necessary cash flow for both purposes. However, many committee members felt that a somewhat larger dues raise now might avoid the need for other increases in the next few years if the amounts were carefully crafted. In so doing, the committee also adjusted some of the difference in rates among various dues categories

Ultimately, the Finance Committee reached a compromise that addressed all four critical issues but also lowered the amounts of certain dues increases and lengthened the time needed to reach a positive fund balance. See the accompanying chart for specific dues increases.

The NYSSCPA will offer a series of new services and programs to all members--including expanded outreach to industry--and also has developed a plan to attract a broader membership base. *

DUES SCHEDULE