Debt
The source for this figure - $250,000 or more in debt to Pacifica's national office - is comments made by the WBAI treasurer at the 8/21/07 LSB meeting ($230,000), by the CFO at the 8/29/07 National Finance Committee meeting (about $200,000), by the KPFA treasurer in emails of late September ($330,000), and by the CFO in a report to the PNB in October 2007, in which he said:
The strictly financial problem is straight forward: WBAI has an operating deficit of 250-300k. Additionally, there back debt of approximately the same amount. What to do?Just to be clear, the other four Pacifica stations do NOT have debt to the national office. Further, WBAI did NOT have net debt to the national office before 2006. This is a worsening problem.
Further, voters should understand that debt to the national office is a serious problem. The other stations have reported having their CPB grant money delayed so that the national office could pay WBAI's due bills or payroll. The network cannot sustain this situation indefinitely.
There are several actions the rest of the network can take to get its money back from WBAI, not all of them pretty. For example, the CFO has several times endorsed the idea of underwriting - taking large donations from organizations in return for saying their name on the air. This runs counter to Pacifica's tradition of journalistic independence and listener-sponsorship. But, if WBAI becomes an unsupportable liability, it may be forced upon us.
Allowing this debt to be incurred was an irresponsible act, by WBAI management, by the LSB under "Justice and Unity," and by the CFO. It was obvious years ago that WBAI's income was declining and that expenses needed to be lowered. But the LSB and management refused to do it. Now we have a very serious and growing problem.