Last updated on April 26, 2024
We have received a spreadsheet form an unimpeachable source, comparing our end-of-February 2024 data with the matching information from end-of-February, 2020. There were five checking/savings accounts, namely two unrestricted accounts, and three restricted accounts, the restricted accounts being Convention, Building, and Legal. The Legal account was empty.
The LNC had just under $306,000 cash on hand in 2020, and over $224,000 cash on hand in 2024. The decline in cash on hand between the two years was $81,468.
Some convention expenses had been prepaid, namely $51,724 in 2020 and $1105 in 2024.
The major deferred liability was income for the convention. In 2020 the LNC had received $290,726 for the convention. In 2024 by the same date the LNC had received $126,140 in convention income, a decline in convention income of $164,586 between the two years. (Dollar totals in the two restricted accounts are smaller than these two numbers.)
Readers may call financial plans that appeared to propose that large convention income would bring things into a good balance. Large convention income does not appear to be happening. Perhaps some reader will slog through old LNC Minutes, etc., and find the report that I only generally remember and that I do not seem to have at hand. Your signed or anonymous support is welcome.
The 2024 budget projects $500,000 in revenue and $303,000 in expenses, for a net of some $197,000. The overall budget was exactly balanced, so any convention shortfall also unbalances the overall budget.
The 2020 convention raised $288,202 on expenses of $240,044, for a net of some $48,000, although it should be noted that this was the virtual then hybrid convention during COVID. The original 2020 budget also treated the convention as budget neutral ($352,000 in both revenue and expenses) so the rest of the budget had to balanced without accounting for a convention surplus.
The 2024 budget did not acknowledge the budget neutral standard but did acknowledge that huge jump in revenue but argued it was still 5% below 2022 and anticipating replicating that (without acknowledging 2022 was itself unusual).
As mentioned in my reply to your courtesy email (which came to me after this article was published. I will let the convention committee answer any convention-related questions.
I will simply say that we have more unrestricted cash than we did going into any recent presidential convention:
2/2016: $53K
2/2020: $84K
2/2024: $112K
https://www.lp.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/EC_2023-11-28_FINAL.pdf
Minutes from the meeting in November’23 about the 2024 budget. Includes Qs in the Q&A re: the feasibility of anticipating a half million in convention income. Also assures the reader they’ll make it to convention without some form of equity injection. (See also https://groups.google.com/g/lnc-business-list-public/c/g0Sm_sQxRLI for current efforts to leverage the HQ property for additional equity)