Well, no. The ward has an invoice from the stake. The ward then cuts a check to the stake for the amount of the invoice, or simply transfers the funds. Clear, simple, and done in less than 10 minutes. That's transparent. Like every other expense the ward handles.cbradford wrote: According to your logic, then no matter what the stake does there will be no transparency ever. The stake doesn't have to justify to the wards how much money is allocated (though our stake does). In this case, the stake has provided an invoice to each ward that shows how much money is going to be withheld. It is a very simple matter to determine how much money they would have received otherwise, if they truly believed the Stake was withholding additional funds.
I think your statement about this being the opposite of transparent is completely unfounded.
For whatever reason the stake doesn't want to do it that way. The stake has the ability to change the allocation, for its own reasons. But the amount the ward generally receives every quarter is malleable, depending on the past attendance numbers and the needs of the stake. It is this very flexibility that eliminates the connection between the payment to the stake vs. the payment to the budget. And here's the kicker - there's no need to turn a simple, everyday transaction into this headache.