FW: 2026 Budget Submitted by ExCom to the LNC

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From: Steven Nekhaila <steven....@lp.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2025 5:44:23 PM (UTC+00:00) Monrovia, Reykjavik
To: lnc-public_forward <lnc-publi...@lp.org>; LNC Board <lncb...@lp.org>
Subject: Fw: 2026 Budget Submitted by ExCom to the LNC

Forwarding this to the public list as required.

Sincerely,
Steven Nekhaila

Chairman, LNC

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From: Bill Redpath <bill.r...@lp.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2025 8:23 PM
To: LNC Board <lncb...@lp.org>
Subject: 2026 Budget Submitted by ExCom to the LNC

 

Today, the Executive Committee voted to submit the attached LNC budget for 2026 to the Libertarian National Committee for its consideration at the next Libertarian National Committee meeting, December 6-7, 2025, in Dallas, Texas.

The 2026 annual budget numbers are in Column T of the attached spreadsheet. It is the annual budget numbers that are the most important. That column is a summation of the monthly columns to its left that are hidden, but, of course, LNC members are welcome to unhide them, if they like.

Yes, we know that this budget is out of balance. The Financial Standards Committee and the Executive Committee both thought that amending this proposed budget should be a matter for the entire LNC to discuss and decide next weekend.

Bill Redpath

LNC Treasurer

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From: Keith Thompson <keith.t...@lp.org>
Sent: Monday, December 1, 2025 10:56:31 PM (UTC+00:00) Monrovia, Reykjavik
To: Steven Nekhaila <steven....@lp.org>; lnc-public_forward <lnc-publi...@lp.org>; LNC Board <lncb...@lp.org>
Subject: Re: 2026 Budget Submitted by ExCom to the LNC

Good afternoon,

In listening to the budget proposal meeting and looking over the spreadsheet, I'm interested in a few items. 

I feel like these could be answered by me re-reading the budget while wearing a tiny green accounting visor, but the list has been quiet lately and it's possible some others are also interested.

The Credit Card Fees item goes from zero to $44,111. I realize this is tied to processing fees and not interest on debt, but I'm curious why it was zero for 2025. Was it simply not budgeted?

The Chair mentioned restarting LP News, but the membership communications line item is zero - would that need to be funded outside the budget, or is LP News included in another item?

The 2025 Ballot Access Petitioning fund for 2025 shows zero, but the 2026 budget is at 50k.

Does the 20k "proactive" item for New Mexico include the Secretary of State suit? That is, if we settle the matter without the force of the state, would we then save 20k?

Salary Bonus Sick & Vacation decreases by 16k, but payroll taxes are increasing by 63k and 401k is increasing by 14k. With decreased staff, should we not see a corresponding decrease in PR tax and 401k?

In terms of obvious cuts - I would like to see $20k cut from meeting expenses next year, but that's more of a call for the future LNC. I also realize that cut would only be about 10% of our projected shortfall. 

I suppose it's better to budget for it and not spend it, than spend it without having budgeted. We're not the government, after all.

Just looking at the budget as a whole, employees and contractors make up nearly half the budget but have already been cut considerably.

But then looking into the 8000 series of GL codes, it seems that the largest change is in PR taxes - so I'm wondering why that went up so much year over year when the burdened salary amount went down.

Was there a change in how it's being tracked?

I feel like my confusion there may stem from a lack of morning coffee, but I'll risk the public embarrassment so I can go into the budget meeting more knowledgeable than I am now.

I'd also like to kick off some discussion before the meeting so we can at least digest things before sitting down for hours on end.

Thanks,

Keith Thompson

Region 3 South Rep

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From: Steven Nekhaila <steven....@lp.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2025 11:44 AM

To: lnc-public_forward <lnc-publi...@lp.org>; LNC Board <lncb...@lp.org>
Subject: Fw: 2026 Budget Submitted by ExCom to the LNC

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From: Keith Thompson <keith.t...@lp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 2, 2025 8:12:53 PM (UTC+00:00) Monrovia, Reykjavik

To: Steven Nekhaila <steven....@lp.org>; lnc-public_forward <lnc-publi...@lp.org>; LNC Board <lncb...@lp.org>
Subject: Re: 2026 Budget Submitted by ExCom to the LNC

Good afternoon again,

I was going to just ask these directly, but others may have similar questions so I'll ask here as well.  I plunked the budget into PowerBI because charts help those of us who zone out on a balance sheet.

It again stands out as odd to me that the payroll (gold) is decreasing for 2026 but the payroll tax (light green) is more than tripling. Is that correct? 

To my untrained eye, it seems that they would move in scale with each other, but maybe I'm missing something.

Similary, I'm curious about the accounting budget (light green below).  Since we're no longer meaningfully involved in the JFC and payroll is lower, why are we seeing a ~50% increase in accounting costs?

Just trying to make sure I properly understand the budget before the meeting.

Thanks,

Keith Thompson

Region 3 South Rep

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From: Keith Thompson <keith.t...@lp.org>
Sent: Monday, December 1, 2025 4:56 PM

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From: Keith Thompson <keith.t...@lp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 3, 2025 4:35:01 PM (UTC+00:00) Monrovia, Reykjavik
To: lnc-public_forward <lnc-publi...@lp.org>; LNC Board <lncb...@lp.org>

Subject: Re: 2026 Budget Submitted by ExCom to the LNC

Apologies - regarding the accounting cost going from 54k to 74k, I crossed my eyes transforming the table and accidentally typed in the legal total rather than accounting, which was the line item below that!

The extra 20k there was from the "proactive" lawsuit.

Regarding the Payroll tax - since Mr. Redpath's amended budget shows this at 35k, up from 24k, the increase is a bit less. 

But even jumping from 35k to $87,600 seems extreme, especially given decreased payroll.

My expectation is that the 2026 P/R Tax would decrease in line with the PR itself, so maybe ~32k? It's very possible I'm just misinterpreting, but that's like 25% of the entire budget shortfall on its own.

Thanks,

Keith Thompson

Region 3 South Rep

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From: Keith Thompson <keith.t...@lp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 2, 2025 2:12 PM

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From: Bill Redpath <bill.r...@lp.org>
Sent: Friday, December 5, 2025 5:47:26 PM (UTC+00:00) Monrovia, Reykjavik
To: Keith Thompson <keith.t...@lp.org>; Steven Nekhaila <steven....@lp.org>; lnc-public_forward <lnc-publi...@lp.org>; LNC Board <lncb...@lp.org>

Subject: Re: 2026 Budget Submitted by ExCom to the LNC

Keith:

Re: Credit card fees. I do not recall how these were budgeted for 2025. The $44,111 figure budgeted for 2026 is based on the ratio of credit card fees expense to total revenue Year to Date 2025.

I am not aware that the restart of LP News is included in any of the budgeted expense line items.

The 2025 budget for Ballot Access expense was about $90,000. It was posted in Ballot Access Fundraising expense in error. The 2025 YTD Ballot Access expense is $10,000, which was for help for Arkansas completing its petition drive.

It is my understanding that the $20,000 budget for proactive legal expense is not based on anything specific litigation.

Payroll taxes were "severely underbudgeted" in 2025, according to Hannah Kennedy, and the 2026 budget is based on actual payroll tax expense incurred YTD in 2026.

Hannah Kennedy will not be in Dallas but will be available online or by telephone when she is needed during the LNC meeting this weekend.

Bill Redpath

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From: Keith Thompson <keith.t...@lp.org>
Sent: Monday, December 1, 2025 5:56 PM

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From: Andrew Chadderdon <andrew.c...@lp.org>
Sent: Friday, December 5, 2025 8:38:38 PM (UTC+00:00) Monrovia, Reykjavik
To: Bill Redpath <bill.r...@lp.org>; Keith Thompson <keith.t...@lp.org>; Steven Nekhaila <steven....@lp.org>; lnc-public_forward <lnc-publi...@lp.org>; LNC Board <lncb...@lp.org>

Subject: Re: 2026 Budget Submitted by ExCom to the LNC

Mr. Redpath, 

There was recently the Litigation committee established to engage litigation in New Mexico.  I have heard no progress from the committee and don't believe that they have made any progress on their work in their approximately two months of existence, despite assurances from I think this entire board about the importance of the matter and the wish to fulfill our obligations to defend the trademark. 

I would ask you however, why were there not budget allocations made to support that work?

This board is making a very strong case for opposition parties to claim that the LNC has abandoned its trademark by not defending it appropriately.  This is especially true given that offending parties have doubled down on their infringement of our trademark after we passed the motion to pursue litigation in response to their infringement. 

Are the officers of the LNC aware of the risk that is being taken by the continued inaction on this critical matter?  If our trademark is voided, it will be an existential threat to the Libertarian Party.  I can tell anyone who is interested to hear further about the damage caused by having an unauthorized group fraudulently misrepresent themselves as the Libertarian Party.  I would assume that the Chair of our New Mexico affiliate could as well, given that he was put on the committee to assure accountability and that progress would be made, yet he also has been stonewalled for months without even response to an email until very recently. 

Why isn't the committee acting despite the assurances that were given in the last meeting on the matter?  Why was this matter not included in the proposed budget? 

Andrew Chadderdon

Region 1 Rep | Libertarian National Committee

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From: Bill Redpath <bill.r...@lp.org>
Sent: Friday, December 5, 2025 12:47:26 PM