LONNY GOLDSMITH AND
JONATHAN FRIENDLY
StaffWriter and News Editor

he Jewish Community
Center is facing a budget
deficit greater than it antici-
pated when it started its cur-
rent major building campaign, and it is
weighing program cuts at both its West
Bloomfield and Oak Park facilities.
The cuts would be in addition to the
already announced elimination of the
infant and toddler day care services at
Oak Park, a step that the JCC said
would save $40,000 a year.
Agency officials say they will have to
cut at least $160,000 more — from an
overall budget of $8.8 million — to
bring spending within the boundaries of
a deal it made in 1997 with the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
In the deal, the Federation agreed to
give the JCC a $3.2 million one-time
payment in addition to its regular annu-
al subsidy. That was to cover what both
agencies anticipated would be a difficult
cash-flow problem caused when rev-
enues from memberships and programs
drop because parts of the D. Dan &
Betty Kahn Building in West
Bloomfield will be closed for construc-
tion.
Projections made when the deal was
struck called for using about $600,000
in the first two years. In a recent inter-
view, JCC Director David Sorkin said
the Center will have spent nearly half
the subsidy, $1.5 million, by the end of
May, only two years into the six-year
deal.
Shortfalls have grown even though
the West Bloomfield Center has not
started any of the construction work,
such as building a new gymnasium and
relocating the health club, which was
expected- to affect those revenues.
The first piece of bricks-and-mortar
work came this week as contractors
began demolishing the interior of the
social facility, Shiffman Hall.
JCC Board President Larry Wolfe
said revenues from memberships and
programs had declined far more than
originally expected.
"Our expectations and optimism
were greater than reality," he said. "We
anticipated more revenue based on high-
er membership."
Membership has fluctuated, from
9,936 members in April 1996, to 9,665
at the same point in 1997, moving up
to 9,864 in April 1998 ; but down to
9,551 this month.
General membership charges at the
Kahn building range from $573•a year

4/23
1999

6 Detro_itiewish News

JCC weighs program cuts as its
deficits increase and its bank
balance shrinks.

Work has started on a facelifi for Shiffman Hall, the largest meeting and party facility in the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Building of the
Jewish Community Center. Initial bids for the work were $1.5 million, but Center officials said they have pared the contract to stay
within a $1 million grant from Marion and David Handleman, for whom the facility will be renamed when it reopens in the fall

for a family to $268 for a young adult;
health club charges, which include a
general membership, begin at $891 for
those over 35 and go down to $446 for
a young adult. It was not clear how a
fluctuation of a couple of hundred
memberships could account for the bulk
of the two-year $900,000 extra shortfall.
To try to bring revenues up, the
Center has increased what it charges
non-members to attend a program.
"The spread wasn't great enough to

benefit the members," Wolfe said. "If
we're giving quality programs and peo-
ple who attend don't want to be mem-
bers, they should have to pay for it."
Sorkin said the gap between revenues
and costs "is tumbling in a direction we
aren't comfortable with."
The JCC board, he said, has decided
that the gap should be $500,000 in the
budget for the coming fiscal year. The
1998 deal with Federation had projected
a gap of $772,000. It was not clear why

Center officials said they would cut
$200,000 rather than the $272,000 dif-
ference between the projection and the
new board-set limit.
Sorkin declined to specify all of the
programs that would be affected by the
.
cuts, saying those will be announced in –
June after the Federation has approved
the Center's budget, and its allocation,
for the 1999-2000 fiscal year.
He said that, in addition to ending
the day care program at Oak Park,

THE CASE FLOW SAP

"PROJECTED INCOME, COSTS AND ANNUAL BUDGET DEFICITS FOR THE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER"

Fiscal year ending May 31
Program service fees
Membership dues
Other income
Total direct revenues
Federation allocation
All other (gifts, grants, etc.)
Total allocated revenues
Total .revenues
Total expenditures

Operating deficit

1998
2,505,642
2,051,999
778,976
5,336,617
1,461,000
1,072,769
2,533,769
7,870,386
8,261,495

1999
2,710,001
2,331,000
742,066
5,783,067
1,519,440
1,104,649
2,624,089
8,407,156
8,612,331

391,109

205,175

2,574,701
8,074,639
8,846,892

2,589,593
2,154,000
748,528
5,492,121
1,643,426
973,660
2,617,086
8,109,207 .
9,061,546

2002
2,883,728
2,458,000
765,119
6,106,847
1,709,163
1,083,643
2,792,806
8,899,653
9,503,261

2003
3,274,320
2,797,000
822,210
6,893,530
1,777,530
1,173,097
2,950,627
9,844,15 7
9,910,067

772,253

952,339

603,608

65,910

2,000

2,533,689
2,221,000
745,249

5,499,938
1,580,218
994,483

2001

.